Sound & Communications March 2019, Vol 65 No 3

PEPPERMILL SPORTSBOOK G O E S T H E E X T R A YA R D

RENO CASINO GOES BEYOND LARGEST DISPLAY, CREATES VIDEO ATMOSPHERE

A V

T E C H N O L O G Y

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A P P L I C A T I O N

March 18, 2019 Vol. 65 No. 3

Voices Carry Multi-site churches are utilizing advanced AV to reach the masses

100 Acres Of Discreet AV Tulsa OK’s Gathering Place creates an ‘organic’ attraction

C O M M E R C I A L

22nd Annual

Worship Center AV Survey

22nd Annual Worship Center AV Survey Report C O M M E R C I A L

A V

T E C H N O L O G Y

A N D

A P P L I C A T I O N

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CONTENTS Volume 65 Number 3

44

F E AT U R E S 42 PEPPERMILL SPORTSBOOK GOES THE EXTRA YARD Reno casino goes beyond largest display, creates video atmosphere.

Multi-site churches are utilizing advanced AV to reach the masses.

By Alesia Hendley

By Dan Daley

66 AN INTRODUCTION TO MILAN

50 100 ACRES OF DISCREET AV T E C H N O L O G Y

60 VOICES CARRY

The new AV network protocol for the industry, by the industry.

Tulsa OK’s Gathering Place creates an ‘organic’ attraction.

By Dan Daley

By James Oliver, Henning Kaltheuner, Jeff Rocha, Bart Swinnen and Tim Boot

56 NOT YOUR FATHER’S AV INDUSTRY ANYMORE

70 DIGITAL SIGNAGE EXPO 2019 NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

By Pete Putman, CTS

Compiled by Dan Ferrisi

A brave new world in which profits are shifting from hardware to services.

Products that manufacturers report are being introduced to our industry at DSE in Las Vegas NV.

COLUMNS

DEPARTMENTS

8 WAVELENGTH

By Dan Ferrisi

14 SOUND ADVICE

By Peter Mapp, PhD, FASA, FAES

18 IOT

C O M M E R C I A L

A V

By Ken Scaturro

4

11 NEWSLETTER 22 HOUSE OF WORSHIP: TECHNOLOGY

From The Ground Up: First Baptist Covington’s new worship space was designed to foster a feeling of community.

By Anthony Vargas

36 INDUSTRY POV

New Video-Based Collaboration Trends Indicate A Bright Future: Focus areas include simplicity, BYOD capability and anytime/anywhere flexibility.

By Ketan Merchant

38 INDUSTRY POV

Seizing 4K Opportunities In 2019: In mission-critical environments, pixel-perfect images can be the difference maker.

By Caleb Hooper

Sound & Communications March 2019

40 INTEGRATOR’S POV

Collaboration Is Key To Success: From music-making to meetings, this truth always holds.

By Carl James

76 NEWS 78 CALENDAR 80 PEOPLE 81 PRODUCTS 84 MEDIA 84 SOFTWARE 85 CENTERSTAGE 90 MARKETPLACE

20 HOUSE OF WORSHIP: BUSINESS

By David Lee Jr., PhD

30 THE COMMISH

By James Maltese, CTS-D, CTS-I, CQD, CQT

32 WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

By Douglas Kleeger, CTS-D, DMC-E/S, XTP-E, KCD

34 AVIXA POV

By Sean Wargo

92 AVENT HORIZON

By Pete Putman, CTS

22nd Annual Worship Center AV Survey is Available (click here)

WAVELENGTH As a lifelong writer and a 15-year veteran working as an editor, I am particularly attuned to people’s choice of terms. Journalists, for example, frequently substitute the word “piece” for “article” or “story,” as in, “Dan’s piece just made it into layout.”

In the technology industry, and those industries adjacent to it, a number of terms have been bandied about so frequently that they’ve become cliché, having fallen into disrepute from overuse. One of those, I’d argue, is “evangelist.” It’s true that the term refers to something rather precise— one who expounds on a topic in hopes of winning converts to a different way of thinking—but it’s also wormed its way almost everywhere. So many “evangelists” are among us that we almost qualify as a revival! Another pair of overused terms is “disruption” and “disrupter.” With all this disrupting going on, it’s amazing anyone can get anything done.

Irksome as these terms du jour are, disruption is indeed what came to my mind while attending the inaugural Collaboration Week NY, organized by the Interactive Multimedia & Collaborative

Communications Alliance (IMCCA).

The three-day event, held from Februar y 25 to 27, attracted a combination of end users, integrators, consultants and manufacturers who wanted to immerse themselves in the unified conferencing and collaboration (UCC) space. With involvement from marquee names like Microsoft, Cisco, Google and American Express, Collaboration Week NY reminded commercial AV professionals that our industr y, which once shared with IT practitioners a hold-each-other-at-arm’slength attitude, has been disrupted.

On February 25, during a gala opening dinner at which IMCCA honored Snorre Kjesbu and Jason McGraw, a “State of the Industry” panel discussion reinforced the disruption that our industry—and broader society—is experiencing. With participants representing Yorktel, Zoom Video Communications, Altia Systems, etc., the panel discussed topics such as the biggest story in the collaboration industry, whether the industry is still growing, opportunities associated with cloud collaboration and the rise of Team Chat. The last point

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particularly perked up my ears because, although the panelists disagreed about the speed at which change will occur, they collectively predicted that Team Chat would Dan Ferrisi slowly become a dominant—perhaps the dominant—means by which individuals communicate for business. In fact, one panelist predicted the eventual demise of email, although hastening to add it wouldn’t be overnight.

Disruption is exciting, although also, at times, a bit disconcerting for those who like the old ways. (I, for instance, still edit this magazine on paper printouts, using a red pen.) In time, though, what’s new and exotic often becomes what’s comfortable and familiar. Indeed, given time to adjust, even skeptics can become…evangelists.

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A V F O R S Y S T E M S I N T E G R AT O R S , C O N T R A C T O R S A N D C O N S U LTA N T S

Editor Dan Ferrisi dferrisi@testa.com Associate Editor Anthony Vargas avargas@testa.com Assistant Editor Amanda Mullen amullen@testa.com Contributing Editors Shonan Noronha, EdD Pete Putman, CTS Jim Stokes

Contributors Tim Boot Dan Daley Alesia Hendley Caleb Hooper Carl James Henning Kaltheuner Douglas Kleeger, CTS-D, DMC-E/S, XTP-E, KCD David Lee Jr., PhD James Maltese, CTS-D, CTS-I, CQD, CQT Peter Mapp, PhD, FASA, FAES Ketan Merchant James Oliver Pete Putman, CTS Jeff Rocha Ken Scaturro Bart Swinnen Sean Wargo Technical Council Joseph Bocchiaro III, PhD, CStd, CTS-D, CTS-I, ISF-C, The Sextant Group, Inc. Douglas Kleeger, CTS-D, DMC-E/S, XTP-E, KCD David Lee Jr., PhD, Lee Communication Inc. Peter Mapp, PhD, FASA, FAES, Peter Mapp Associates Shonan Noronha, EdD, Media Resources Pete Putman, CTS, ROAM Consulting LLC Art Director Janice Pupelis jpupelis@testa.com Digital Art Director Fred Gumm Production Manager Steve Thorakos Sales Assistant/Ad Traffic Jeannemarie Graziano jgraziano@testa.com Advertising Manager Robert L. Iraggi riraggi@testa.com

CONTRIBUTORS Alesia Hendley is an audiovisual professional who found her passion at a young age as a sound engineer within her father’s church. Now, you can find her operating/installing audiovisual systems or executing creative ventures.

As a young professional, she’s finding ways to bring AV, creatives and creative visions together.

Caleb Hooper is VP, Business Development, at Adder Technology, a leader in IP KVM solutions. He has 20 years’ experience in digital project management, and he is responsible for ensuring Adder’s products meet its customers’ evolving needs.

Carl James is the former Director of Engineering for Star City Recording, where he mixed an eclectic list of artists. He has also been a facilities manager and an engineer. After 12 years as a Senior AV Design Engineer, he is now the Advanced Collaboration Specialist for Pennsylvania-based AV integration firm Vistacom.

Ketan Merchant is the Associate VP of Video Technologies at ClearOne. With degrees in electrical engineering and coming from the worlds of aerospace, defense, satellite communication, semiconductor and telecommunications, he has a unique perspective on technology and how it relates to the growing demand for video-based collaboration across industries.

Contributing Editor Pete Putman, CTS, President of ROAM Consulting LLC, is a Senior Academy Instructor for AVIXA and was named 2008 Educator of the Year. Putman is a member of SMPTE and SID. He writes the monthly “AVent Horizon” column and occasional feature articles.

Sean Wargo is Senior Director of Market Intelligence for the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association (AVIXA). He is former VP of BDS Research and Director of Industry Analysis for the Consumer Technology Association.

Dan Daley has covered the confluence of technology, business and culture for almost 30 years. He has also been a successful composer and recording studio owner, and he authored the book Unwritten Rules: Inside the Business of Country Music.

Technical Council member Douglas Kleeger, CTS-D, DMC-E/S, XTP-E, KCD, shares insights gained from more than 35 years’ experience in the AV industry in his “What Would You Do?” column, as well as “Secrets To Success.” He offers a unique perspective on the AV industry and how it affects our lives.

Technical Council member David Lee Jr., PhD, is CEO of Lee Communication Inc., Orlando FL. He is a licensed minister who has more than 25 years’ experience as a systems integrator.

He writes the monthly “House of Worship: Business” column. Contact him at dlee@testa.com.

James Maltese, CTS-D, CTS-I, CQD, CQT, is President of Audio Visual Resources, Inc. (www. avres.com), where he has commissioned hundreds of AV systems. He is a board member of the Association for Quality in AV Technology (AQAV), and he is a Senior Academy Instructor for AVIXA.

Classifieds classifiedsales@testa.com Circulation circulation@testa.com Operations Manager Robin Hazan Associate Publisher John Carr jcarr@testa.com President/Publisher Vincent P. Testa Editorial and Sales Office Sound & Communications 25 Willowdale Avenue Port Washington, New York 11050-3779 (516) 767-2500 | FAX: (516) 767-9335 Sound & Communications Sound & Communications Blue Book IT/AV Report The Music & Sound Retailer DJ Times • DJ Expo ConventionTV@NAMM ConventionTV@InfoComm

Sound & Communications (ISSN 0038-1845) (USPS 943-140) is published monthly for $25 (US), $35 (Canada & Mexico) and $65 (all other countries), by Sound & Communications Publications, Inc., 25 Willowdale Ave., Port Washington, NY 11050-3779.

Periodicals postage paid at Port Washington, NY, and additional mailing offices. Copyright © 2019 SOUND & COMMUNICATIONS PUBLISHING, INC. Reprint of any part of contents without permission is forbidden. Titles Registered in the U.S. Patent Office.

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March 2019

Sound & Communications

7

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NEWSLETTER GN AUDIO ACQUIRES ALTIA SYSTEMS GN Audio (Ballerup, Denmark) has signed an agreement to acquire Altia Systems Inc. (Cupertino CA). Altia Systems is a developer of video communications solutions that utilize digital multicamera array technology. This market is expected to grow significantly from a currently low penetration rate because of easy-to-use (plug-and-play), integrated audio and video unified communications (UC) solutions. GN Audio is involved in intelligent audio solutions for the call center and offices (CC&O) market. Its product lines include professional headsets and speakerphones.

The total purchase consideration is up to $125 million on a debt- and cash-free basis. As part hereof, around $12 million is linked to retention agreements to be expensed by GN Audio between this year and 2021.

The acquisition of Altia Systems allows GN Audio to expand into integrated audio and video communications solutions, supporting companies’ collaboration and meeting efficiency. GN Audio already has a strong position in the UC market with the Jabra Evolve line of headphones, as well as prominence in the category of speakerphones for small meeting rooms and personal use with the Jabra Speak line of products. Adding video capability to those positions gives GN Audio immediate access to the highly attractive market of integrated audio and video solutions for small collaboration rooms—or so-called huddle rooms.

NEW BUSINESS RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO NSCA MEMBERS NSCA (Cedar Rapids IA) has announced additions to its Business Accelerator and Member Advisory Council programs. The services offered by these providers are created exclusively for NSCA members to streamline business processes, establish marketing differentiators, build lead-generation pipelines and gain access to capital.

One of the NSCA Business Accelerators, Deluxe, offers integrators and manufacturers access to printing specialists and personalized printed products, such as business cards, envelopes, folders, letterhead and business forms. Another, OfficePro, offers online and in-person training services for technical personnel and administrators. PSAEducation.com, meanwhile, provides integrators and manufacturers with the knowledge, skills, tools and resources needed to help their businesses thrive and be successful. Another Business Accelerator, TradeCycle, utilizes trade finance techniques to provide simple, supply-side funding for integrators and manufacturers.

NSCA also has added two resources to its Member Advisory Council program. Audira Labs offers executive and career coaching for leaders who seek change, development and growth. Combining a personalized approach with a systematic methodology, Audira gives integrators and manufacturers the necessary skills to lead effective teams and organizations. Supervox, meanwhile, helps ambitious integrators and manufacturers thrive in a complex and competitive marketplace. Supervox’s marketing capabilities combine strategic, creative and digital expertise with solid processes.

INFOCOMM 2019 TO EXPLORE COMMERCIAL AV IN HOSPITALITY, RETAIL InfoComm 2019 will explore the fast-growing markets for AV solutions in hospitality and retail between June 8 and June 14 in Orlando FL. The show will host more than 30 education sessions focused on the ways that companies in hospitality and retail, as well as the AV solution providers that serve them, are using AV technologies to enhance the customer experience. The global market for commercial AV products and services in retail is forecast to reach $20.3 billion this year, and it’s expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5 percent through 2023, according to the AVIXA (Fairfax VA) Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis (IOTA) report. The hospitality market is also surging, with a forecast of $7.5 billion for this year and a forecasted six-percent CAGR through 2023.

To develop this new education program, AVIXA, producer of the InfoComm show, has partnered with Visual Merchandising and Store Design (VMSD), a media platform that provides resources for You could have received this NEWSLETTER information about three weeks ago, with more detail and live links, via email. Go to www.soundandcommunications.com to sign up!

March 2019

Sound & Communications

9

NEWSLETTER retailers, including design ideas, merchandising strategies and its annual International Retail Design Conference (IRDC). AVIXA is also collaborating with experts at Hotel Management, which holds industry conferences and events around the world and covers hotel development, operations, design and technology. In addition, AVIXA has partnered with PSFK, a retail customer-experience research firm that inspires brands to leverage innovation in retail through various channels, including its Future of Retail conference and New York Retail Innovation Week.

MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, PEERLESS-AV FORM MULTI-YEAR PARTNERSHIP Minor League Baseball (MiLB) has announced that Peerless-AV (Aurora IL) will be the “Official Digital Display Partner of MiLB.” Among the many extensions of the partnership, Peerless-AV will be integrated into MiLB’s existing partnerships with Allegiant Air and ISM Connect to establish it as the exclusive provider of screen technologies for MiLB. In July 2018, MiLB established a partnership with ISM Connect to launch the Allegiant Airline Network, the largest in-venue digitally connected smart screen network in sports and entertainment. Beginning this season, select MiLB clubs will have the opportunity to participate in the digital network, with the technology furnished by Peerless-AV. More than 50 MiLB ballparks are scheduled to feature Peerless-AV technology by Opening Day 2020.

The installation process of Peerless-AV displays is underway for Opening Night 2019, and MiLB and Peerless-AV are planning further placements during the year. Throughout the partnership term, Peerless-AV technology will be incorporated into numerous locations, such as concourse LCD displays, video boards and ribbon boards, to boost fan engagement further and enhance partnership opportunities for MiLB and its teams. As clubs continue to make enhancements to their ballparks, Peerless-AV will be a resource throughout the design and installation process.

LEVEL 3 AUDIO VISUAL ACQUIRES AUDIO VISUAL RESOURCES Level 3 Audio Visual, LLC (Mesa AZ), a full-service AV integration and education organization, has acquired Audio Visual Resources, Inc. (AVR, Mineola NY). The acquisition combines a top integration firm with a leader in system testing and verification, and the only firm ever to have achieved both ISO 9000 and AV-9000 certifications.

James Maltese, President of AVR, stated, “It is an honor to be part of the Level 3 Audio Visual family. It’s as if our companies were cut from different ends of the same cloth. I’ve never seen two teams come together so naturally, with tremendous respect for what each is bringing to the table. Combining Level 3 Audio Visual’s client experience and integration prowess with AVR’s ability to complete projects with zero defects, we are going to redefine how AV systems are delivered.”

Brad Peterson, CEO of Level 3 Audio Visual, stated, “I am amazed by the synergy our two companies have created, and I feel humbled and honored to enter the New York market on such solid ground with such an amazing team.”

JACK KLINE STEPS DOWN AFTER 40 YEARS AT CHRISTIE Christie (Cypress CA) has announced that Jack Kline, an important figure in digital cinema technology and the architect of the Virtual Print Fee (VPF) that accelerated the adoption of digital projection in movie theaters, is stepping down as Chairman, President and CEO of Christie after 40 years with the company. The move will be effective April 1. The company’s current CFO, Kazuhisa Kamiyama, will assume the role as Chairman and CEO. Assisting in a smooth transition, Kline will remain at the company as an Executive Advisor to the CEO until April 1, 2020.

“I am fortunate to have worked at Christie my entire professional life and played a critical role in leading the company into the digital age, helping it become a global force in digital display technology,” Kline stated.

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SOUND ADVICE

What’s All The Noise About?, Part 2 Measuring steady and fluctuating noise levels.

By Peter Mapp, PhD, FASA, FAES

L

ast month, I looked at several different ways of measuring and rating the noise from AV and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, including the dBA and dBC scales, octave-band frequency analysis, and the Noise Criterion (NC) and Preferred Noise Criterion (PNC) rating cur ves. This month, I want to introduce some additional common techniques and see how we can measure and rate a noise that fluctuates. I will also look at the potential influence that the choice of measuring microphone can have on the results.

In Part 1 of this article, I presented the NC cur ves and measured the fan noise from my PC, showing it to be NC40, as shown in Figure 1. In 2008, the NC cur ves were extended to cover down to 16Hz and a new criterion—the Room Noise Criterion (RNC)—was introduced. The cur ve shapes are slightly different, leading to a potentially different RNC value as compared to the NC value. In Figure 2, I have plotted the RNC cur ves.

As shown in Figure 3, using the RNC criterion, the noise from my computer measured RNC 42, as opposed to NC 40. Although I didn’t forget to measure the noise in the 16Hz and 31.5Hz bands, I didn’t actually extract that data from the sound level meter/analyzer (SLM), as it wasn’t particularly relevant at the time and the computer noise spectrum was already dropping below the criterion cur ves. However, in retrospect, it might have been academically interesting to see the data, although it would also have been influenced by passing traffic.

The RNC cur ves are defined in ANSI/ASA S12.2 (American National Standard: Criteria for Evaluating Room Noise), which also indicates there are essentially three evaluation methods from which one can choose to achieve the level of accuracy required: (1) a sur vey method that uses the A-weighted sound level (i.e., dBA); (2) the engineering method that employs the NC cur ves; (3) the (for lack of a better word) “precision” method that employs the RNC cur ves and takes into account fluctuations in the noise. The last method requires a time series of octave-band sound pressure levels to be made.

12 Sound & Communications March 2019

Figure 1: NC rating of computer noise.

Figure 2: Room Noise Criterion (RNC) curves.

Figure 3: RNC rating of computer noise.

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Figure 4: Fluctuating noise trace.

Figure 5: Fluctuating noise trace, with multiple noise metrics applied.

Figure 6: Random incidence sound-level correction required for typical half-inch measurement microphone.

14 Sound & Communications March 2019

Although many sources of room background noise output a fairly steady and consistent level of noise—for example, my computer fan noise and many HVAC and equipment noise sources—a considerable number do not. In those cases, by contrast, they emit a fluctuating level of noise. The problem is how to rate and evaluate that.

Consider, for example, the soundlevel/time-histor y trace presented in Figure 4. It shows that, in this particular case, the sound level varies from around 40dBA to 94dBA, although, most of the time, it only fluctuates between approximately 75dBA and 94dBA. In the old days of analog SLMs, you could sometimes take an eyeball average of what the needle was reading; however, to tr y mentally to average a fast-changing set of numbers from a digital SLM display is effectively impossible.

However, it is possible for modern digital SLMs to do the averaging for you. That generally takes the form of an Leq or LAeq value, whereby the sound energy over a given period of time is assessed and the equivalent level of the sound, had it been constant, is calculated. Returning to Figure 4, the steady line represents that average. With more sophisticated meters and analyzers, it is possible to obtain a whole raft of statistical information about a var ying noise.

Possibilities include, for example, obtaining the maximum and minimum levels that occur within a given time period.

One can also discover levels that are exceeded for a given period of time—for example, the L10, which is the sound level that is exceeded for 10 percent of the time; the L1, which is the sound level that is exceeded for one percent of the time; and the L90, which is the sound level that is exceeded for 90 percent of the time. Those sound levels can also be A-weighted, and, so, they’re indicated by the terms LA10, LA1 and LA90, respectively. Figure 5 shows the time histor y of a var ying noise and a range of data that can be extracted. In this case, the LAeq =

Band

Combined 16Hz, 31.5Hz and 63Hz

125Hz

Lmax minus Leq

7

6

L10 minus Leq

3.5

3

82.7dB, the LAmax = 89.1dB, the LAmin = 67.6dB, and the LA10 and LA90 were 86.9dB and 68.9dB, respectively.

As noted, the RNC method also takes into account fluctuating noise levels by taking a series of octave-band readings over time. To determine the presence of large fluctuations, two approaches may be taken—(1) the Lmax minus the Leq combination or (2) the L10 minus the Leq combination. This is shown in the accompanying table above.

Some further points to consider when making noise (sound level) measurements relate to the type of, and the orientation of, the microphone.

Measurement microphones are most

commonly half-inch types, although quarter-inch capsules are becoming more popular. (Previously, they were ver y expensive.) The next question concerns whether the microphone performance should meet Class 1 or Class 2 specifications. (Class 2 measurement microphones have less exacting frequency-response requirements than Class 1, and they’re consequently less accurate.)

The final question is how to orient the microphone. Some ANSI standards require the microphone be a sound pressure type, capable of making an accurate “diffuse field” measurement.

Others (including all European SLM and noise-measurement standards)

require a “free field” microphone to be employed and aimed directly at the sound (noise source). In practice, this usually does not make a huge difference, unless high-frequency noise is the dominant element. For example, Figure 6 shows a plot of the free field to random incidence sound-level correction required for a typical half-inch measurement microphone.

As I have shown, there is quite a bit more to measuring and assessing AV equipment and room noise than might be thought at first sight. (Perhaps that should be at first hearing?) What’s more, that is without even having considered measurement distances and spatial averaging.

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Buying By The Drink

Why AV as a Service might be the next big thing in business technology.

By Ken Scaturro Yorktel

A

large part of the digital customization, AVaaS is becoming an increasingly viable—not to mention cost-effectransformation that’s happening in totive—solution. In the AVaaS model, companies pay a fixed monthly fee, typically on a day’s workplace is the steady migration “per meeting room” basis, to a provider; in return, they get a full suite of AV hardto ever ything “as a ser vice.” Paying by ware and ser vices. That suite can include monitoring, hosting, bridging, gateway, the month, by the user, by the license network ser vices, maintenance, updates and integrated room ser vices—all remotely or by the meeting offers many advanoperated by the provider, and all for a fixed, easy monthly fee. The customer can also tages, including less initial investment, receive monthly reports (because the provider is already monitoring the solution). decreased overall cost and greatly enThis relatively new and unique structure is a move away from costly in-house manhanced flexibility, as well agement. Providers are completely responsible for system management as an approach that allows and upkeep, allowing on-site staff to be repurposed. In short, companies for adjustments as your are empowered to focus on the business at hand.

Thanks to the business model changes.

In my experience, AVaaS offers some major benefits. They include increase of IPAnd, although comthe following: based equipment panies have embraced Increased Scalability And Reduced Responsibility: AVaaS allows Infrastructure as a Ser vice, you to pay for what you need and scale up or down, depending on your and the flood of Software as a Ser vice, Debusiness activity. Rather than being burdened with costly hardware that application-driven vice as a Ser vice and Platdepreciates over time and infrastructure that requires on-site managefeatures that offer form as a Ser vice, there ment, maintenance, help-desk and more, AVaaS providers take care of continues to be a relucall those responsibilities so that you can focus on your business. myriad opportunities tance to consider adopting Remain Current With Equipment Refreshes Ever y Three To for platform Audiovisual as a Ser vice Five Years: Over the past five years, an unprecedented number of new customization, (AVaaS). That’s despite the collaboration technologies have emerged from new players such as Mifact that AV solutions typicrosoft, Zoom and Google. From “one-button-to-push,” to “soft codecs,” AVaaS is becoming cally require a large capital to interactive panels, these new technologies add tangible productivity an increasingly investment in hardware and value in the conference room. AVaaS includes fixed time refreshes, viable—not to that can quickly become keeping your organization current with new technologies. Your monthly outdated, and they often payment remains the same, similar to the financial model behind leasmention costdemand a higher degree of ing a new car ever y few years. effective—solution. internal support. ComReclaim Lost Time To Generate Return On Investment (ROI) ponents are unplugged, Quickly: An AVaaS model can generate efficiencies that, over time, connectivity is interrupted, add up to significant time savings. Plus, AVaaS can be budgeted as an software updates fall behind schedule operating cost, eliminating the traditional hardware and labor costs. Because time is and end users complain about not being money, any moments you can recapture—even small ones—are worth evaluating if able to get different components to you are considering adopting AVaaS. Some of the efficiencies include the following: work together. These conditions waste • Remote Administration: AVaaS is remotely administered, with fewer personnel time, add expense and hamper business required on site. Most troubleshooting and monitoring can be done remotely by productivity. someone who is connected to your network and running the appropriate software.

Happily, thanks to the increase of • Predictable Monthly Cost: Because you know what your cost will be on a monthIP-based equipment and the flood of to-month basis, this line item becomes a static figure in your budget. There’ll be no application-driven features that ofguessing over how much your costs will go up or down each month. fer myriad opportunities for platform Control Over System Updates: Because AVaaS is a ser vice “owned” by the

16 Sound & Communications March 2019

other work to be done? Do you already have AV equipment that is up to snuff, or will you want to consider a complete rip and replace by your AVaaS provider?

Finally, consider how change management might impact your selection, installation, implementation and enduser adoption. Do you have an internal champion who could spearhead this

© 2019 Peerless Industries, Inc. All rights reserved.

provider, maintenance responsibilities, such as system updates, fall to that provider. That arrangement frees you from having to invest time and funds in keeping up with maintenance and update requirements. Returning to the car-leasing analogy, all maintenance costs are covered until the dealership tells you to bring in the car for routine ser vicing. So, your own “ownership” of the AVaaS model, in fact, relieves you of the burdens associated with managing your own updates and maintenance. This is also similar to Microsoft’s Office 365 model: By paying the subscription costs, you are always using the most current version.

These benefits can generate great payoff for customers and produce a quick, measurable ROI on any initial investment. Before you decide to dive headfirst into AVaaS, however, there are some factors to consider: First, it makes sense to get an evaluation of your current IT environment, whether internally or by an external vendor who has expertise in AVaaS, to get a “before” snapshot of your existing ecosystem.

Second, you will want to drill down specifically into how your organization will use AVaaS. Identify several points of use—whether your own end users or down the chain to your customers—that you can comfortably assess as regards time savings, cost savings and increased efficiency.

Third, you will want to have an assessment of any potential restrictions you might encounter when proceeding with AVaaS. It’s important to make sure your AVaaS provider has sufficient IT expertise to size and fit a solution properly, so that it’ll accommodate your individual environment. Such a provider should perform key studies, such as a complete network assessment, as part of its evaluation. You will want to consider the following: Will your existing infrastructure accommodate a smooth integration, or is there

process from end to end? Does that person know enough about AVaaS to ser ve as an internal subject matter expert (SME)? If not, consider going outside your organization to take advantage of change management experts who can lead you through the entire process, from end to end, and anticipate any potential pitfalls along the way.

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HOUSE OF WORSHIP: BUSINESS

Tech For Ministry, Part 2 Continuing to explore my top seven equipment list for 2019.

By David Lee Jr., PhD Lee Communication Inc.

T

he house of worship (HoW) market is looking strong this year. I make this claim after speaking with hundreds of HoW leaders last year, the vast majority of whom feel good about the US economy and have a strong desire to enhance and expand their ministries. Drawing from those conversations, I, in Part 1 of this series, presented a list of the top seven technologies these HoW leaders want to purchase. Presented again, they are the following: video projectors, digital audio mixing boards, sound reinforcement (loudspeakers), video production gear for image magnification (IMAG) and livestreaming, moving lights, in-ear monitors (IEMs) and specialty microphones. Here, in Part 2, I will present key reasons that worship leaders desire the five technologies I’ve yet to explore in greater depth.

I will point out that sound reinforcement is the most-needed gear in a HoW, and such technology has been in use for many years in HoWs around the world. That partially explains why sound is third on the list; in short, most HoWs already have loudspeakers, but they might lack visual display systems and digital mixing boards. Thus, they want to add those components before upgrading their loudspeakers.

For those who are ready to upgrade their sound systems, line-array technology is often the top preference.

Line arrays are not the solution for ever y venue, however. I am certainly

18 Sound & Communications March 2019

a proponent of line-array systems that bolster line-array theor y, but, in my experience, you can count on one hand the number of publicly available linearray systems that meet this criterion.

So, although line arrays are desired, I encourage you to deliver a system that truly addresses venue requirements.

In addition, I encourage you to hire a structural engineer to make sure the existing HoW facility can support the weight of an array (or any device, for that matter). Line-array technology is a great problem solver, but only when the proper system is chosen and when it’s installed correctly.

Video production gear is next on the list. Leaders’ desire to livestream is growing exponentially, and it’s the driving force behind the inclination to purchase video production gear. We all know there’s a cheap way to livestream and there’s a better way to do it. The cheap way uses a smartphone or a cheap video camera placed 75 feet from the stage. I have a set of beliefs regarding livestreaming; they can be boiled down to “Do it well, or don’t do it.” However, I am not the only one who has an opinion about this, and, as you know, many HoWs livestream their worship ser vices with a smartphone and attract viewers anyway.

Although I think following that path is a bad idea, I don’t think it’s all bad.

Why? Well, primarily, because I believe that HoW leaders who livestream with a smartphone, but who are open to learn-

ing, will eventually have a moment of revelation: Using professional cameras, lighting, microphones, expanded audiomixing capabilities, etc., will create a worship experience for online viewers that truly matches the experience that occurs inside the worship venue. I also believe that HoW leaders will recognize the potential to use the gear to create content (whether for teaching, counseling or something else) that is distributed apart from the live worship ser vice.

In all cases, video production gear is a booming area for integrators to pursue.

Moving lights represent another highly desired product among HoW leaders. Drawing from my experience working with HoWs, multiple reasons exist to use moving lights. One is to create a wild light show to grab the attention of spectators, impress them and keep them engaged. Many HoWs use moving lights in that way. I am not a fan of that approach, however, because I believe overuse becomes “noise” that distracts people from comprehending the true message the pastor is tr ying to communicate. By contrast, mature HoWs understand that moving lights, used appropriately, can help people focus on the message. Whether used aggressively or subtly, moving lights are ver y much desired by HoW leaders.

Next on my list are IEMs. There are two primar y reasons driving the desire for IEMs: (a) high stage volume and (b) a desire by musicians to have their own, unique monitor mix.

Although IEMs are, indeed, a solution for those two primar y needs, we always explain to clients that it takes time for musicians and sound operators to adjust to hearing and mixing in this environment. Thankfully, a few key manufacturers are marketing relatively simple and cost-effective solutions that are already built in (or just add a card) to the digital mixing board. This will help IEM purchases grow, along with purchases of higher-end (and more expensive) ear buds, headphones and wireless systems.

The last item on my list, specialty microphones, refers to the highly sought-after over-the-ear microphones.

I recognize the popular and vast use of over-the-ear mics might no longer warrant the label “specialty” for them; however, a product not yet on the market, but still desired, is an overthe-ear mic that wirelessly connects to a beltpack or a system. Many HoW leaders use tiny Bluetooth devices (mic and speaker) with their smartphones.

Thus, they are asking me (and probably you) about a similar product to use when they are onstage. The company that develops this technology for the commercial market will make a mint, because we’ll sell a lot of them.

I believe the seven desired products on my list, along with related secondar y products, will ensure this year will be a great one for our industr y. That is what I believe. I want to know what you believe.

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From The Ground Up First Baptist Covington’s new worship space was designed to foster a feeling of community.

By Anthony Vargas

A

strong sense of community is essential for any house of worship (HoW). This is why audio, video and lighting technologies have become so indispensable in the worship market. AVL tech ser ves to bring people together, and it can be used to create strong communal experiences. However, a HoW cannot rely solely on AVL to bring its congregants together; it helps if the worship space itself is conducive to a feeling of community.

Louisiana-based First Baptist Church Covington (FBC Covington) understands the importance of both high-end AVL and a welcoming worship space in creating an experience that can bring a congregation together. Back in 2014, FBC Covington’s leadership decided to move forward with a plan to add a new, 2,400-seat worship space to its existing building; the addition was completed in 2018. From square one, making sure that the new space would create a communal experience for congregants was a top priority.

According to Barry Carpenter, Technical Director for FBC Covington, 20 Sound & Communications March 2019

FBC Covington’s new worship space was designed to be congregational in nature.

The seating layout makes attendees feel like they’re in a sea of people, and the stage thrusts out a bit into the audience so the pastor and performers can get close to the crowd.

“We intentionally designed the space to be congregational in nature. This affected everything, from how the acoustics of the space were designed to the arc of the seating, so people could see one another.” He added, “We utilized the new construction nature of this [project] to really home in on where we wanted to go and what we wanted to accomplish [not only] now, but also in the long term. From an AVL perspective, we saw this as an opportunity to include acoustic and AVL design from day one of the project— something that historically had not been done.”

(In addition to the construction of the new worship space for FBC Covington, this project also included construction and AV systems design for a new common area, administrative offices and a children’s education annex. However, this article will only cover the worship center design and installation.)

FBC Covington contracted HH Architects to build the new worship center and brought on acoustical design consultancy Idibri (www.idibri.com) to handle the design of the new worship space in terms of its layout, acoustics and AVL systems. Idibri worked in close consultation with FBC Covington’s leadership and technical team to ensure the client’s vision for the new worship space would be realized.

Idibri’s Casey Sherred explained how his team approached the early stages of the project to determine the most effective ways to implement FBC Covington’s priorities.

“We went through the architectural directives with them and we talked through what purposes they had for the space,” he said. “The church is highly relational, so they wanted the worship ser vice to have a personal experience with the warmth of the corporate body. For us, that meant, when the pastor is standing up speaking, there needs to be people wrapping around him so he can feel like he’s out in the crowd a little bit. So, there’s a pretty good wrap in the room’s seating, which also allows people sitting on one side of the room to see people on the other side. You can see a sea of people [whom] you’re in community with. And we made sure there was enough room at the front between the seats and the stage for people to come down and be able to

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HOUSE OF WORSHIP: TECHNOLOGY

congregate for altar calls.”

The directive to prioritize a communal worship experience also extended to the AVL infrastructure and acoustical-design aspects of the project. To that end, FBC Covington wanted to outfit the new worship center with a robust video system that would keep congregants engaged through the use of image magnification (IMAG) and special effects, a lighting system that could be used to set the mood throughout the entire space, and a sound system that The view from the front-of-house mixing location. The main stage’s center-hung LED screen is divided into sections and displays abstract images and themed graphics, like this simulated stained-glass window.

The video production room.

would deliver clear, intelligible speech reinforcement while also meeting the demands of the church’s large traditional orchestra and contemporary praise band.

The process of designing the new worship space with AVL technology in mind from the start allowed FBC Covington to avoid some of the issues the technical team had with the old venue. “The preexisting worship space was a temporary build that, due to Hurricane Katrina, became a long-term-use space,” Carpenter revealed. “We had real challenges with audio coverage, poorly designed systems, sightlines and acoustics. Knowing some of those pitfalls was a big part of the reason we made the decision to bring in Idibri early in our design process of the new space.”

Soundworks Systems Integrators (www.soundworksllc.com) was contracted to handle the actual installation of the audio and video systems designed

by Idibri. The team from Soundworks included Senior Project Manager George Picone, Project Foremen Shawn 22 Sound & Communications March 2019

Downum and Mark Linson, and On-Site Project Manager for AV and Data Keith Russell Sr. Texas Scenic (www.texassce nic.com) installed the lighting systems.

FBC Covington runs three services at this location in a given week. The biggest difference between services is the approach to music; some utilize a traditional orchestra of about 30 and choir of about 60, whereas others employ a contemporary praise band of eight and about six vocalists.

Other wise, ser vices at FBC Covington are typical of similar-sized Baptist churches, with spoken-word greetings and musical performances followed by an extended sermon delivered by a single pastor. “The flow of each ser vice is ver y similar to each other on a given weekend, but we aren’t locked into a particular format,” Carpenter described.

“Typically, we have times of worship and prayer and giving at the first half of the ser vice and a sermon at the second half, followed by an invitation.”

To accommodate the two different approaches to worship music, Idibri de-

signed a movable choir loft on casters that can be pushed back and hidden when the choir is not performing, or removed entirely to allow use of the entire stage for ver y large orchestras.

“Their turnaround is somewhere around 30 minutes between ser vices, so we designed a portable choir loft with tracks in the floor,” Sherred described. “It can roll back to the upstage wall, and there’s a curtain that comes across so you don’t see the choir loft at all. It’s Wenger risers and Wenger pieces and parts, and it all breaks down. So, for special productions, if they need to use the upstage space, the loft can be de-mounted. Obviously, that takes quite a bit of time to do, but it can be done by a few people that can strike it and store it, and then they can reassemble it later.”

In addition to the choir loft, the stage also features three large LED screens made up of 362 THOR:SLATE 3.9 panels. The two screens on stage left and right measure 23'x13.1' and are primarily used for IMAG, and the unique center screen is divided into sections and used more as a set piece displaying abstract images and designs. In a similar fashion to the moveable choir loft, the center screen can be raised or lowered to accommodate different stage setups.

“It’s all on a motorized hoist so they can lower it when the choir loft isn’t in play,” Sherred said. “So, in a matter of 10 to 15 minutes, they can change the look of the stage from contemporar y to traditional and vice-versa pretty easily.”

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HOUSE OF WORSHIP: TECHNOLOGY

Two LED screens positioned to the right and left of the stage are used for IMAG and onscreen lyrics.

camera positions in the worship center.

Three new Hitachi Z-HD5500 cameras were specified for this project, and an additional preexisting Hitachi camera was repurposed for use in the new space.

All four of these cameras are mounted on DAIWA tripods. Three Marshall Electronics CV500-MB2 mini cameras are available to be mounted in various positions onstage to capture musician shots. A Hitachi RC-Z12A-S10 remotecontrolled camera is also in use.

The worship center features a number of confidence monitors. “They have two 80-inch Sharp AQUOS screens that are mounted on the base of the balcony on left and right,” Picone described, “and then they have three 42-inch LG screens sitting left and right and in front of the stage. There are some cutouts in the seating where those three confidence

24 Sound & Communications March 2019

monitors slide in, and then they have a kind of millwork cover so that they don’t look obtrusive.”

The backstage area features a separate black-box studio that can be used for recording audio, video announcements and other video rolls to be shown during ser vices. “One of their ideas was building out a small set so they could host fireside chats,” Sherred described.

The video production suite—located under the balcony—is equipped with a Ross Video Carbonite Black 2 2ME switcher and an NK-3G64 router, plus a Bittree patchbay system and a Christie Pandora’s Box ser ver. A videowall composed of five LG flatscreens displays the various camera feeds; three of these screens show a multiviewer view, and the other two screens show a full-screen view. The workstation furniture was

provided by Forecast Consoles.

A Ross Video distribution amplifier system is used to send the HD-SDI video feeds to the switcher and router. “They have SDI video that goes to monitor locations in back of house and the corridors,” Picone said.

“They also have six in-house modulated channels, so they can provide content to all areas of the building, which amounts to three or four digital signage channels, live production from the worship center [and] a couple of TV channels that they have on the system, too. There’s a Crestron control system that controls all the TVs and monitors—a CP3 processor with a TSW 760 touchscreen and multiple iPads.”

“There are displays in the lobby, the green rooms and back of house areas,” Sherred added. “Video feeds are distributed to the lobby over HD-SDI as a direct feed that comes off the router, in order to keep the latency low. For other parts of the building, it’s modulated on the MATV system and distributed throughout the rest of the campus.”

A Mac Pro and iMac with ProPresenter software are used for computer graphics effects processing, including lowerthirds and onscreen text; signals from the graphics computers are sent to the various displays via Blackmagic Design UltraStudio 4K systems with Thunderbolt interfaces.

FBC Covington records video of its worship services for broadcast on a local TV station, as well as streaming its video content online. Four AJA Ki Pro Racks

are used for video recording. “We have a separate video-switching and audio portion that focuses on broadcast needs,” Carpenter explained. “Video is switched through Ross Carbonite Black gear, audio through our Yamaha consoles. The feed then goes through our custom-built encoder, and that makes its way to Boxcast, and then goes out to all of our mediums.

Our TV program is edited separately from our ISO camera recordings by a local media company, Let’s Develop. They edit and deliver content to TV.” In addition to designing the video system, Idibri also had to design a sound system to suit FBC Covington’s worship programming. From the beginning stages of the project, Idibri worked with HH Architects to ensure that the acoustics of the worship center would be optimal, and the company tailored an audio solution that complemented the acoustical makeup of the room. “We designed the shapes of the walls to mitigate reflections, and we also designed an acoustic treatment package with panels on the walls in specific locations, as well as treatment that’s above the ceiling clouds and on the roof deck,” Sherred said. For sound reinforcement, Idibri specified several L-Acoustics speaker systems. Speaker placement was determined using L-Acoustics’ Soundvision software, as well as EASE. A pair of L-Acoustics KARAi arrays— flown above the main stage in a left/right configuration—serves as the venue’s main loudspeaker complement. They are supplemented by a pair of L-Acoustics KIVA II arrays, serving as outer fills for the far left and far right seating areas.

“There are eight KARAs in each of the main arrays, and seven KIVA IIs in each of the side-fill arrays,” Sherred said.

The new worship center features stadium seating and an upper balcony at the rear of the room, so Idibri decided to deploy a delay ring containing 10 L-Acoustics 12XTi speakers to cover the back rows. “We used delay speakers so we don’t have to fire energy from the front of the room all the way to the top row, because, if we do that, we put more energy than we’d really like to on the

far wall,” Sherred explained. “With the delay speakers, our angle of incidence is steeper, and that energy grounds out, so it’s not an issue at the front of the room.

It also allows them to turn off those speakers if they want to scale the room down. They can turn the delay ring off and shut the lights off in that area and darken that whole area out to encourage

people to sit further for ward in the room on the main floor.” An additional five L-Acoustics 5XT speakers installed at the front of the stage are used as fills to paint the first few rows of seating with sound.

Low-end sound reinforcement is handled by seven L-Acoustics SB18i subs located under the stage and six

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HOUSE OF WORSHIP: TECHNOLOGY

During services, the live video signal from the main sanctuary is fed to a number of displays located throughout the campus, such as these displays in the lobby. When services are not taking place, these displays are used as digital signage.

SB18i subs flown above the center of the stage in a cardioid deployment. All the L-Acoustics speakers in the worship center are powered by 13 LA4X US amplifiers, which also handle signal processing for the speakers.

A distributed audio system composed of 87 JBL Control 26CT speakers and eight Control 47HC speakers ser ves to send audio to various parts of the building, including the lobby, hallways, restrooms, etc. A QSC Core 110f handles digital signal processing for the distributed audio system.

A Yamaha RIVAGE PM10 console located at front of house receives stage inputs from an RPio622 rack located in a backstage equipment room. According to Kris Landrum of Sound Productions, which provided equipment to the integrator, Soundworks, “FBC Covington was looking for a console that could support a high channel count for their

26 Sound & Communications March 2019

new worship space, [which] would also be used for other events, such as concerts for Covington’s symphony orchestra.

There are several pockets throughout the stage and a patchbay system to accommodate input arrangements for var ying stage plots. They also were ver y impressed with the processing power within the PM10 and, of course, the SILK microphone preamp.” The patching system includes Panduit and Black Box patch panels.

A Shure ULXD wireless mic system ser ves as the main audio input, with a mix of Shure instrument mics and vocal mics and DPA headsets in use for various applications. “The original spec used a Dante connection into the console for the wireless mics, but we changed that to a copper connection so that they could benefit from those preamps in the Yamaha console,” Picone said.

According to Carpenter, “Originally, our wireless mics were coming into the

PM10 via Dante. However, in order to make use of the SILK Neve transformers, we made the decision to have the mics come in analog, as it’s the only way to take advantage of these amazing preamps. The Red and Blue transformer saturation sounds incredible.”

For onstage monitoring, three EAW QX364 speakers are installed above the choir loft area and used as choir monitors; the band members have access to 10 Shure PSM300 in-ear monitoring systems. A band rehearsal space in the backstage area is equipped with EAW QX396 monitors, a QSC CDX4.3 amplifier, a Yamaha TF1 mixer and a Shure QLXD wireless mic system.

A Yamaha QL5 console is located in a separate broadcast audio production room; this console shares inputs and outputs with the console at front of house, and stems can be sent from front of house to mix the broadcast audio feed separately.

The audio production room also includes two Adam Audio A7Xes and one Sub15 for monitoring purposes.

The production team communicates via a Clear-Com Eclipse Median digital matrix system. For ADA compliance, the venue also includes a Listen Technologies RF assistive-listening system.

The venue’s lighting system features an assortment of conventional fixtures and color-changing LEDs. “The house lights are color-changing LEDs, the ceiling clouds have color-changing LED linear fixtures that light up the clouds and there

There are four operator-controlled camera positions in the worship space.

are color-changing LED sconces that are full-height sconces on the side walls,” Sherred described. “They can paint the audience with one color and the ceiling with another. You can get really dramatic looks within the space to change the mood, and you can go completely Vegas-style if you wanted to. But you’re really able to create any mood or atmosphere with the lighting that’s all around you. It’s not just LEDs on the stage—that’s only part of the experience.”

The choir loft can comfortably accommodate FBC Covington’s large choirs, which average about 60 members. When a choir is not needed, the loft can be rolled back behind a curtain or removed from the stage entirely.

“We use Chroma-Q Vista S1 and M1 consoles to program and control our worship ser vice lighting,” Carpenter explained. “Our goal for lighting is to enhance and not distract from the message being presented. We program our content and cues ahead of time, which leaves things simple for volunteers to run during the ser vice. We utilize a large number of K-9 Bulldog Pros for our stage wash lighting and a variety of fixtures for beam effects. For house lights, we chose

Chroma-Q Inspires. All of our clouds and side panels in the room are washed

by RGBAW fixtures. This combination gives us some really impactful programming options. We use conventional lighting for front wash, but used [Electronic Theatre Controls] smart bars instead of traditional dimmer racks so we have the option to change to LED front wash with minimal infrastructure changes required.” (continued on page 84)

March 2019

Sound & Communications 27

THE COMMISH In the AV industry, the end users are typically represented by two separate, yet equally important, groups: the designers, who specify the systems, and the integrators who install them. My company acts as a third party to commission these systems. These are our stories.

Staging Simple Systems Is it worth it? In a word, ‘yes.’

By James Maltese, CTS-D, CTS-I, CQD, CQT Audio Visual Resources, Inc. Make sure your systems are ready for business before you send them out on a years-long camping trip in the cold, relentless world of enterprise users.

AV9000 Checklist Item Under Test: The entire Staging Checklist.

Reasoning: An ever-increasing number of simple systems are being installed. They are meant to be installed quickly and forgotten about. I’ve heard many people question whether it is still worth it to stage them before installing them, because they are so streamlined.

The answer is always yes, but especially with enterprise-sized rollouts.

The chance of a small issue unnecessarily delaying the project is too great, or, worse yet, a systemic issue could halt the project. The idea, as always, is to catch these issues in the integrator shop, where they can be dealt with in the most expeditious way possible.

The Stor y: Going winter camping can be such a fun experience. You get to disconnect from the rat race. You get to spend some time with family and friends. You get to recharge your batteries, both literally and figuratively.

The woods are so quiet and peaceful in the snow. It’s great!

Inevitably, however, the week before can be a bit crazy. You want to set things up at work so there’s less of a 28 Sound & Communications March 2019

chance of an emergency call. You also have to plan and pack your things (and your kids’ things) before leaving. Here’s where things become tricky. Do you take a few minutes each night during the week to pack a little here and there to make sure you don’t miss anything? Or, is there “no time” during the week for packing anything, leaving you to do it all the night before?

If I were camping by myself, I’d go with the latter. I’ve camped enough that I can get the essentials together pretty quickly, and, if I happen to forget something, I’ll just improvise or rough it out. However, children changed that. If we forget something that would have made their stay in the snow more comfortable, it not only results in a miserable time, but also might sour them on camping in general. Ain’t nobody got time for ’dat! So, planning becomes far more important. It is mission critical to the success of the campout. Naturally, this got me thinking about staging AV systems.

Just to ensure we’re speaking the same language, by “staging,” I mean mocking up the systems before they are sent to the job site. That means unboxing ever ything, checking firmware, loading control system code and completely building the systems in your shop before sending them out to the client. This project milestone can have a tremendous effect on a project timeline because you flush out all the issues before you get on site. Anything that takes an hour to troubleshoot in the shop will easily take three hours or more to troubleshoot in the field (for a variety of reasons). Most people to whom I speak acknowledge how important this is. Despite that, staging is the project milestone that is most often neglected.

Why, you ask? “There just isn’t enough time.”

My rejoinder? “There isn’t enough time not to stage each system!”

For a perfect example, look to the seemingly simple systems that are rolled out by large enterprises. There’s a display, a camera and some UCC controller on the desk.

That’s it. So, what is there to stage?

Well, first, there’s the obvious stuff: Does ever ything work out of the box? Is the display damaged? Is there an appropriate video input on the display to accept the output from the UCC device, or is an adapter required? Can the camera successfully

be extended to the UCC device? Was anything damaged during shipping? Do all the devices communicate as expected in the design?

Second, there’s the not-so-obvious stuff that enterprises might require: Is the firmware the required version (not always the latest and greatest!) to be allowed on the client’s network? Are the display settings the same as the thousand other displays on campus? Are the network settings configured to play nicely on the client’s local area network (LAN)? Are all the media access control (MAC) addresses and serial numbers documented and assigned to a particular room, so they can be reported to IT for provisioning?

Lastly, there’s the profit-protecting stuff: What did we find out during staging that will make the installation go more smoothly? Should we label

devices with their physical orientation to avoid confusion in the field? Is each “room kit” packed together for easy deployment, or are we just shipping the entire job in one big mess? Have I sent the field team a list of items to check for “Room Readiness” to make sure the job site is ready to accept the system?

If any of those items are missed or not checked in the shop, they can add hours, days or weeks to the project.

When that happens, profits are lost, clients become upset and the field guys are made miserable because they aren’t going to see their families for the next few weeks. And that’s per system! What if you are deploying hundreds?!

Staging is a crucial milestone no matter how simple the system might seem.

It is even more critical when enterprise clients are involved—the clients that think in terms of managing hundreds of

systems at a clip. Packing for a camping trip for a family of four is stressful, without a doubt, but it’s even more stressful being responsible for packing for hundreds of families of four. Fortunately, there are processes in place to make sure no one gets hurt and everyone has fun—you never skip the staging.

In the Cub Scouts, before a cold camping trip, we get all the families together to make sure ever yone has their critical items. “Show me your sleeping bag. Show me your tent. Show me your gloves. Show me your extra wool socks….” It’s the same with rolling out enterprise AV systems. Ever y simple system has the potential to derail the project. It must be staged. You want to make sure it’s ready for business before you send it out on a years-long camping trip in the cold, relentless world of enterprise users.

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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Remote Work In The AV Industry, Part 1 Good enough for them, but not good enough for us?

By Douglas Kleeger, CTS-D, DMC-E/S, XTP-E, KCD

A

s of late, I have made some career changes, and I’ve found myself perusing the job listings on the AVIXA website. As it turns out, the day I searched, I found 204 job postings for AV. However, when I used advanced search functionality to look only at the state of Georgia, just one listing came up. There was a plethora of listings in the northeast, west, etc., but nothing local to me. At that moment, I remembered that, on LinkedIn, I’ve come across many posts mentioning studies that indicate work-at-home employees are more productive. Hmmm….

Some years back, I wrote a few pieces about working remotely, whether in the employ of others or as a subcontractor. These experiences made me think it’s time to delve a little deeper into this area. Specifically, I want to focus on some perspectives that others have shared with me, as well as my own experiences, as it relates to working remotely while employed by others.

Before getting micro, however, let’s go macro as it relates to our industr y and the work-at-home trend. We in commercial AV tout that, by purchasing current technologies from us, companies can empower their employees to work collaboratively from remote locations. And, indeed, it’s true! Companies’ return on investment (ROI) is dramatic, with savings realized in travel and transportation costs, office-related expenses, etc. And the same technologies are utilized for remote learning, remote healthcare ser vices and more. All those benefits are unlocked by clients spend30 Sound & Communications March 2019

ing tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars for our industr y’s technology.

If we completely removed the remote-work aspect from all our sales, there wouldn’t be much left, would there? I think that means there’s an elephant in the room. If it’s so great for others, then why is it not great for us?

Suppose a client asked, “How do you use these systems? How are they working out?” In many cases, companies in our industr y would be at a loss. Sure, maybe employees have some meetings using these systems, but, in my experience, when it comes to working as a remote team member for an integrator or a consultant, it’s generally a “no.” The experiences that have been shared with me, along with my own experiences, tell me we’re not even close to embracing the technology we sell and using it as we recommend our clients do! Why is that?

I think this issue is quite serious. We are not a large industr y. Folks are not waking up and saying, “I want to be an AV engineer.” Because talent resources are limited, it’s not wise for something like geography to be the difference between someone entering our industr y and entering another industr y instead.

Incidentally, these issues don’t only come up regarding out-of-state job opportunities. What about commuting? Sure, in the future, when we’re driven to work in self-driving cars, we can be working away the whole time. But, for now, commuting two or three hours a day—10 to 15 hours a week of unproductive time—is a serious issue. That’s not even to mention health and safety factors, such as being exhausted and falling asleep behind the wheel. And yet, many industr y employers, especially those hiring engineers, will not entertain remote employees.

Some have told me that, when they address this issue with their managers, the response is hostile. The manager might say the company is building a team, and you have to be in the office to be part of it. (That’s rather hypocritical, given what we tell our clients.) Then there’s the old-school issue of lack of trust. Basically, “How do I know if you are working?” Sometimes, it’s as simple as, “If I am here, then you have to be here!”

I would like to expand on this topic and perhaps do some research about it. To (continued on page 84)

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AVIXA POV

New Markets: Seek And You Shall Find

With worries of a recession on the horizon, it’s time to diversify.

By Sean Wargo AVIXA

C

heck any news source today and you’ll be barraged by a frequent topic of discussion: the threat of a possible recession. During any prolonged period of growth, economists start to wonder when the bottom will drop out. Chalk it up to worries about too much of a good thing and a natural fear of, or belief in, the imminence and inevitability of a decline.

Those watching the long-running growth of the commercial AV segment are no different, with some wondering whether a slowdown is on the horizon.

Leaving aside for a moment the core debate about whether we are on a recession’s doorstep, let’s ponder a different aspect of the same topic. What would one do, as a commercial AV business owner, if an economic slowdown were to hit? How does one weather the storm and stay flat, if not continue to grow?

Well, here’s the good news: Commercial AV is full of diverse opportunities to go after. Whether in terms of geography, market segments, solution areas, products or services, there is plenty of fresh soil to be sown. It might involve 32 Sound & Communications March 2019

going beyond one’s comfort zone to add capabilities or forge new connections, of course, but the rewards can be real—particularly if an existing source of revenue dries up. The hardest part is not always knowing exactly how to break into the new territory, whatever it might be. As we often say at AVIXA, research can help.

Recognizing the challenges involved in entering a new market segment, AVIXA revamped a series of past reports on specific vertical markets so as to provide AV suppliers and providers with a baseline of understanding on the nuances inherent to each. The series, called Market Opportunity Analysis Reports (MOAR), is based on sur veys of consumers, end-user decision-makers and AV providers within a set of six verticals: retail, corporate, hospitality, transportation, sports venues and higher education. The results offer several key insights about the differences between them, providing guidance for companies that seek to expand.

In line with the design-thinking approach to solutions, the research highlights the importance of understanding the true end-user consumers. Shoppers, office workers, guests, travelers, fans and students each have various needs, the satisfaction of which affects their overall assessment of an experience. With regard to sports venues, for example, our sur vey of fans indicates that stadium lighting and the quality of audio are the most crucial elements. For shoppers, the ability simply to find the products in which they’re interested tops the list. These insights lead decision-makers to invest in technologies that can deliver on customer demands.

The level of technology investment necessar y to influence consumers varies dramatically by market, providing strong incentive for those who seek new opportunities. On the lower end of the spectrum, higher education’s plans for improvements to classroom technology translate to an average of about $70,000 per project. That compares to more than $5 million in average AV investments in transportation hubs or $780,000 in stadiums. In each case, capital expenditure is, of course, only one part (continued on page 84)

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INDUSTRY POV

New Video-Based Collaboration Trends Indicate A Bright Future Focus areas include simplicity, BYOD capability and anytime/anywhere flexibility.

By Ketan Merchant ClearOne

I

n a report released a few months ago by AVIXA, “audio advances,” “future displays,” and “IT and the cloud” were listed among the top technology trends that are driving growth in the industr y.

Based upon what I’ve seen in my experience working with enterprises doing video-based collaboration in increasingly popular huddle spaces and small-room conferencing venues, I couldn’t agree more.

After more than 20 years working inside aerospace, defense, satellitecommunication, semiconductor and telecommunication companies, I’ve witnessed firsthand the trends driving the adoption of video collaboration.

I’ve also obser ved what’s driving the creation of transformational solutions that meet the needs of a new crop of participants, including millennials, in non-traditional meeting venues in which people use cloud collaboration to work better, together, in real time.

Let’s explore some of these trends to gain greater understanding….

34 Sound & Communications March 2019

Trend #1: More People Understanding The Importance Of Audio In the AV industr y, many new entrants are making incremental improvements to video, but relatively few entrants have made significant improvements to audio. As compared to video systems, less attention and expertise have been focused on audio capabilities and improvements. But things appear to be changing.

Increasingly, people are dedicating more care and time to audio, as they understand the critical business importance of being able to hear more clearly and simply communicate better. However, making audio devices work well together as a cohesive system can be quite complicated, given that there are so many parameters and variables. Easy integration of key audio components and peripherals is key.

Although the industr y is working toward this, it’s taking a long time. So, still, the best way to offer a seamless experience to consultants, integrators and end users is for manufacturers to supply the key parts of the solution value chain—microphones and digital signal processing to video components—so it all can be controlled and work together seamlessly.

As businesses increasingly rely on remote collaboration, it is more important than ever that they have access to the best technology so as to provide a seamless, integrated, high-quality audio experience. Users have come to expect that videoconferencing will be easy to use, with simple operation in a wide variety of rooms; moreover, as regards audio, anything less than cr ystal-clear full duplex is now unacceptable.

Many customers have a laundr y list of audio requirements, which can include all or some of the following (in no particular order): unobtrusive, yet full 360-degree, microphone coverage; systems optimized for speech intelligibility with near-zero latency; a synchronized audio network; expandability; shielding against radio frequency interference (RFI); and a wide dynamic range with a high signal-to-noise ratio.

Things don’t end there, though. Most customers expect fast, easy installation and integration of audio equipment with any videoconferencing and collaboration system,

within any environment. Fortunately, the latest professional-grade collaboration systems can deliver.

Trend #2: Lifelike Video Collaboration Is Becoming The Standard In addition to improvements being made to audio technology, lifelike video collaboration is becoming the standard in boardrooms, conference rooms and telemedicine facilities, as well as in huddle spaces and small meeting rooms all over the globe. With competitive pricing and improvements in resolution, it’s a whole new world.

Notably, this isn’t just limited to screens, though. The world of cameras is changing, too. Smart, high-resolution cameras for video-based collaboration are becoming more affordable and much more common. Cameras such as these can reliably identify people in the room, and they’re powerful enough to zoom in on individual speakers independently.

It’s also worth noting that cameras designed for small spaces have become equally as important as the sophisticated “flagship” cameras for large spaces.

Specialized cameras for huddle spaces and small meeting rooms satisfy a significant, fast-growing demand in the market because of their ability to meet budgets and satisfy performance expectations for smaller settings.

Trend #3: Virtualization, CloudBased Ser vices And AV As A Ser vice (AVaaS) Another trend is related to virtual project workspaces. The traditional workplace hierarchy, in which individuals are assigned to specific functions, is rapidly fading.

Today’s workplace, by contrast, is made up of dynamic teams, each organized around a specific goal or project.

Although the number of teams in the workplace might have substantially increased, today’s workplace solutions have not kept up. Most collaboration tools are still organized around meetings, rather than teams and projects. That means the documents, minutes and recordings created in a meeting about a specific project end up in one place, whereas all the other documents, emails and instant messages not created in that meeting—but that are still related to the same project—end up somewhere else.

Think of all the ways you communicate and collaborate with your team members on a specific project. They probably include the following: emails, instant messages and chats, videoconferences, face-to-face meetings, whiteboarding and annotation, meeting minutes, document and screen sharing, and real-time document editing and coauthoring. Imagine if you could keep those conversations going, no matter where you were and no matter what device you were using.

The KVM Broadcast Experts

Team collaboration tools are the next step in the evolution of unified communications (UC). They let you both perform and store all your projectrelated content in the same place, and they help you move your collaboration beyond just messaging your team members back and forth.

The desire to exchange content and ideas via email is being replaced by team communication within dedicated channels. Content is added, viewed and saved there, and conversations happen there in public and private channels that users can freely create. Users can work together one on one, or in groups of hundreds, with integrated file sharing, searchable archives and user-presence information. They can connect with colleagues and contacts, via audio and video, with intuitive collaboration tools. Users can meet immediately or schedule a meeting to access a full suite of collaboration features, which might include file sharing, whiteboarding, annotation, chat and meeting minutes. Channels are searchable, organized by topic and, typically, accessible from anywhere.

Platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams and COLLABORATE Space are helping to drive demand for these capabilities, and workplace teams are quickly growing to depend on them. (continued on page 84)

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INDUSTRY POV

Seizing 4K Opportunities In 2019 In mission-critical environments, pixel-perfect images can be the difference maker.

By Caleb Hooper Adder Technology

W

e’ve all seen it in movies: The bad guys are doing something suspicious in a public place—say, in a train concourse—and, back in the control room, our hero instructs the security team to zoom in on their faces.

“Enhance,” the hero says, and a cr ystalclear picture of the suspect, who’s on the other side of the concourse, comes into view. It’s one of the oldest pieces of moviegoer lore. Such enhancement is a Hollywood fallacy, because even HD displays don’t have the resolution to provide that kind of clarity, right?

Maybe once, but not anymore.

The truth is, with the development of 4K as a viable format, demand for remote access to super-high-resolution, pixel-perfect visuals is growing in all sorts of mission-critical scenarios— from security, to aviation, to healthcare, to post-production. It’s not just about using 4K to zoom in on illegal activity (although that’s a common use case).

More broadly, high-quality visuals can afford organizations new and improved ways of working, leading to better outcomes.

These advancements enable doctors to review CAT scan results, in high resolution, wherever they are, thereby 36 Sound & Communications March 2019

letting them identify small aberrations in the body. These technologies support airtraffic controllers in their life-and-death work by giving them access to high-quality visualizations of essential content, such as departure queues and runway occupancy.

And they give production studios pixel-perfect access to video that’s being stored in high-security locations.

Use cases of this sort are easier cited than replicated, however. Many organizations would love to enable remote access to high-quality visuals, but they don’t have the infrastructure to make doing so a reality. That’s where high-performance IP KVM comes in. High-performance IP KVM allows organizations to store their computers in the optimal location—whether that’s for temperature control, noise reduction, efficiency or improved security—and then provide pixel-perfect user access at frontline positions: for example, in the airport control tower or in a ward within a different hospital building.

4K KVM gives organizations that have 4K needs the backbone to make high resolution a reality. It’s time for organizations to make the most of 4K-enabled KVM and deliver a quality user experience.

Making 4K Efficiency A Reality So, organizations know they need quality visuals to help improve the way they carry out their work. The logical next question for those considering 4K is, “How do we achieve that?”

As the demand for 4K content accelerates, IP KVM is evolving to meet that demand.

An efficient, high-capacity IP KVM matrix and switching system can help organizations achieve the quality necessar y to ensure pixel-perfect visuals are available wherever users need them. It’s worth investing in technology that’s going to help turn your hardware into a value-generator, rather than a cost center.

Although 4K-quality visuals certainly don’t have to be out of reach, companies do have to make sure they do their research and implement robust, high-performance IP KVM that will support their high-resolution needs for years to come. Not only that, but they also have to work with a partner that can help them achieve high-quality KVM without having to conduct a full “rip and replace.” 4K should ideally be inte(continued on page 87)

INTEGRATOR’S POV

Collaboration Is Key To Success From music-making to meetings, this truth always holds.

By Carl James Vistacom

W

e’re in the middle of a digital transformation in the audiovisual industr y. For the most part, as new technology is introduced, we must contend with a “disruption” of sorts; that disruption has culminated in a new buzzword—innovation—entering the lexicon. Innovation is becoming a corporate mandate, and much of the strategy in today’s organizations centers on bringing multiple perspectives together not only for mutual benefit, but also for the advancement of the organization. In the AV world, innovation can be achieved through advanced collaboration that involves leveraging technology to reach the overarching goals that drive success.

I’ve been a musician for a number of years, and, so, I’ve lived this idea of collaboration for a long time. Because of successful teamwork, my bandmates and I have reaped real benefits. Take writing a song together, for example.

It’s an electric feeling to come up with something that turns out much better than anything you might have created on your own. Collaboration drives innovation to new heights, bringing process improvement and positive change.

One of the most critical aspects of collaboration is the way in which a team gathers. Historically, teams have met in a number of ways; for example, they might have met in a conference room that had large whiteboards on which members would take turns writing down ideas. Teams might also have 38 Sound & Communications March 2019

conducted design-thinking sessions, jotting down notes on sticky pads and sticking them to the wall. If the goal is to move the collaboration process for ward, however, there’s a tremendous benefit in stepping away from this analog way of thinking—as charming as it might be—and moving toward a method that leverages more sophisticated technologies. Disparate groups having the ability to contribute content, thoughts and ideas from a variety of remote locations, while working toward a unified goal, might not be revolutionar y anymore; nevertheless, it continues to facilitate dramatically enhanced team-based brainstorming.

One market in which the idea of AV collaboration is particularly timely is healthcare. We’re seeing tremendous process improvements, in both small-scale facilities and world-class research institutions, because advanced collaboration technology has been implemented.

At Lehigh Valley Health Network in Pennsylvania, for example, the philosophy is that communication is key to enriching the lives of patients. The facility is equipped with multiple rooms that utilize video cameras, microphones, computer ingest points and conferencing technology. These components enable the hospital to integrate ideas from multiple teams—often under the same roof—and make presentations to advisor y boards, the C-Suite, decision makers and other stakeholders.

Meanwhile, in New York NY, at Mount Sinai Health System, advanced collaboration tools are being used by medical research teams to help attract additional investment capital for projects, as well as being used in outreach to other healthcare networks, hospital groups and development firms. The possibilities in this space are seemingly endless.

One key factor in making advanced collaboration tools work is being able to access a single thought pattern, in the form of a document or design-thinking session, that’s housed on a dedicated platform. The solution must converge parallel data sets, from multiple devices, anywhere and at any time, with team members’ contributions being monitored and secure. This kind of technology is changing the face of teamwork as we know it, allowing organizations to embrace the digital transformation and giving them the opportunity to transform their day-to-day work.

Rifling through jumbled up pieces of paper in someone’s office, looking for discussion points from a collaboration session that might have occurred weeks or months ago, we might start to realize that we would do better to utilize advanced collaboration solutions that, as one example, retain all the documentation from brainstorming sessions.

As innovation begins to take hold, people are wrapping their heads around teamwork and embracing the tools that help them achieve it. By following this path, we will see the benefits of, and the creativity generated by, humans working together.

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Peppermill Sportsbook Goes The Extra Yard Reno casino goes beyond largest display, creates video atmosphere.

The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, enacted in 1992 to define the legal status of sports betting, had effectively ser ved to outlaw it on a national basis, with a few states, namely Nevada and New Jersey, excluded. Last May, however, the US Supreme Court ruled in a case that the law violated the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution. The ruling opened the floodgates for activity centered on sports betting, and one of the collateral benefits to that was a jump in activity around casino sportsbooks. Existing venues saw revenues soar almost immediately; for instance, New Jersey’s sportsbooks reported $40.7 million in wagers in July, the first full month after the ruling; that was nearly triple the previous month’s figure of $16.4 million. Since then, it appears that surge in wagers might also be fueling a wave of renovations in the sportsbook vertical.

A perfect example of that—indeed, an illustration of how far casinos are looking to push the envelope for design and AV in their betting parlors—is found at the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino in Reno NV. The 1,621-room resort recently completed a $3.5 million upgrade to its 82,000-square-foot casino and sportsbook, which was voted best race- and sportsbook by Casino Player magazine in 2015. The refreshed sportsbook reflects Peppermill’s deeply held emphasis on aesthetics—lots of red leather, walnut burl, and a high coffered ceiling that provides both classy indirect lighting (intentional) and some de facto acoustical treatment (unintended, but entirely welcome).

Peppermill also has something else, though: a seamless, 2.5mm-pitch, 110'Wx12'H Samsung direct-view videowall. It was the largest in any sportsbook in the country when it was installed last year. With its tight pitch, the wall was ready for ultra-HD video as soon as it was installed, and it was showing 4K content from day one; much of it consisted of dazzling iterations of 40 Sound & Communications March 2019

up to 30 NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, NCAA, etc., games from DirecTV, all being shown simultaneously. However, plenty of content is produced by the casino’s production division, Entertainment, Electronics & Media (EEM), which used casino Co-Owner William Paganetti’s private jet to send an 8K RED digital camera around the world to capture and create original content. Trademarked as “Windows on the World,” the content acts as video motion art displayed throughout the casino; in particular, it’s displayed on a dedicated 10-foot stretch of the videowall.

Expert Integration The person who directed those video productions is Joe Ness, who heads up the EEM division. He also knows all the wires and sockets in the sportsbook intimately, because he super vised their design and installation. Peppermill likes to do things its own way, and that extends to how it approaches AV integration.

For much of the past two decades, locally based Quantum AV had been the casino’s systems and integration-ser vices AV vendor. But Ness, who founded Quantum AV in 2002, was also a veteran video producer who had credits on MTV in the 1980s. After Paganetti saw some early digital signage with which Ness had been experimenting—shooting video sideways and running it through an HD display at home on a rotating mount that he oriented to portrait mode—the casino magnate gave him carte blanche to create original video for the casino.

After a $500 million property expansion in 2007, he ultimately acquired Quantum AV to bring its technical capabilities in house.

According to Ness, “We had about 20 employees at the time, and he brought just about all of them onboard with the acquisition. We had a budget that rivaled Nat Geo for the videos, which we went all over the world to shoot.”

A custom mount enables the far ends of the sportsbook’s huge videowall to curve out to 90 degrees 35 feet from the center.

The Peppermill sportsbook’s big picture—a seamless, 2.5mm-pitch, 110'Wx12'H direct-view videowall. It was the largest in any sportsbook in the country when it was installed last year.

March 2019

Sound & Communications 41

The huge videowall dominates the renovated sportsbook, and copious amounts of red leather and walnut burl give it a traditional air. But its high coffered ceiling also provides classy indirect lighting and some unintended, but very welcome, acoustical treatment.

When it came time to update the casino’s sportsbook, those substantial in-house skills were utilized.

The Sportsbook’s Big Wall The Box Seat VIP booths in the sportsbook not only get a feed from the main videowall to their touchscreens, but also get a nice view of the wall itself.

The new sportsbook’s design is centered on the massive videowall. Ness reached out to KniTec, a specialty electronics systems vendor that focuses on the hospitality sector, providing

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custom systems such as in-room entertainment and artificial intelligence (AI) services, including Volara, a voice-activated platform for hotels based on Amazon’s Alexa. Eric Christiansen, Managing Partner at KniTec, said he’d been fabricating videowalls at that scale for outdoor use, but tighter pixel pitches and decreasing costs had made them cost-effective for indoor applications just as Peppermill’s inquiry arrived. (Part of that grows from Samsung’s 2015 acquisition of YESCO Electronics and PrismView, two of the world’s largest manufacturers.)

“We’ve been supplying spor tsbooks around the countr y with videowalls for years, and we’ve been working with Peppermill for 17 years, but this was our biggest indoor screen ever and it was the first direct-view wall,” Christiansen said, adding that he had anticipated last year’s Supreme Court decision would help turbo-charge the sportsbook AV market.

KniTec’s technicians measured the area intended to house the new videowall, and they worked with Ness’ team to calibrate its 433 rectangular direct-view cabinets, each of which is composed of six individual tiles. They are locally managed by five Samsung ultra-HD S-Box signage players (or, more colloquially, “snow boxes”), which transmit ultra-HD content across multiple LED displays without requiring external boxes or a splitter (and which knocked more than $100,000 off the budget). According to Christiansen, Samsung’s unique tile configuration, which permits access through the front of the wall, makes it easier to replace individual failed tiles; that was a major selling point for the casino. “You don’t have to deconstruct the entire wall to get at an individual tile,” he said.

It was decided the new videowall would rest on an existing wall in the sportsbook that had previously supported a number of smaller LED walls, made up of conventional displays arranged in 2x2 and 3x3 configurations, as well as a projection screen. What complicated the installation was the casino’s desire to have the new wall cur ved at the sides, approximating the new style in residential flat-panel displays. Achieving that effect would require a custom mounting solution. That took the form of a custom frame truss that let the ends of the 110-foot-long screen curve

out to 90 degrees 35 feet from the center.

“We had to do this in phases,” Christiansen explained, “starting with the center section of the wall, so Peppermill’s installers could practice with it as they went along to the curved portions, installing each panel moving outwards from the center and connecting the cables.”

Mike Devine, a Regional Sales Manager for Premier Mounts’ Premier Dedicated Solution (PDS) division, which designed and fabricated Peppermill’s custom mount—a lat-

tice of frames that are rooted on the floor and fastened to the wall at the top—explained that getting an LED wall to curve is not easy. “It’s tricky because these particular LED cabinets don’t bend,” he explained.

“When you do a concave curvature of LED panels, you only have a minimal tolerance for error—within the thousandths of an inch. The LED nodes shoot light in a cone shape, and, when you attach two cabinets together on a concave curve that is sharp, you may get white light, depending on the

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Sound & Communications 43

EQUIPMENT 65 Behringer MicroAMP HA400 4-channel headphone amps 4 BrightSign XD1034 expanded I/O players 330 Cat6 patch cables (various lengths) 2 Crestron C3IR-8 3-Series control cards – 8 IR ports 1 Crestron CEN-CI3-3 3-Series card interface – 3 slots 2 Crestron CP3 3-Series control systems 61 Crestron DGE-100 digital graphics engines 10 Crestron DMF-CI-8 DigitalMedia card chassis – 8 slots 103 Crestron DM-NVX-350 DigitalMedia 4K60 4:4:4 HDR network AV

encoders/decoders 78 Crestron DM-NVX-350C DigitalMedia 4K60 4:4:4 HDR network AV

encoder/decoder cards 1 Crestron DM-XIO-DIR-ENT DigitalMedia XiO Director – virtual switching

appliance, enterprise version 3 Crestron HD-DA2-4K-E 1-to-2 4K HDMI distribution amps 18 Crestron HD-WP-4K-401-C 4K multi-window video processors w/HDBaseT

and HDMI outputs 1 Crestron TSD-2220-B 21.5" HD touchscreen display (black) 2 Crestron TSW-1060-B-S 10.1" touchscreens (black, smooth) 1 Crestron TSW-1060-RMK-2 rackmount kit for TSW-1060-B-S 1 Crestron TSW-1060-TTK-B-S tabletop kit for TSW-1060-B-S 470 HDMI cables (various lengths) 2 HON HP3262 Metro Classic double pedestal desks 3 Middle Atlantic MRK Series gangable racks (plus 4 existing racks) 8 Middle Atlantic PD-2415SC-NS slim power strips, 24 outlet, 15A 4 Middle Atlantic VRS vertical rackmount systems 2 Premier Mounts AM300-B swingout arms 433 Samsung IF025H fine-pitch indoor direct-view LED cabinets 1 Samsung PM32F 32" class full-HD commercial smart LED TV 5 Samsung SNOW-1703U ultra-HD S-Box signage players 2 Samsung UD46E-A 46" direct-lit LED videowall displays for business 2 Samsung UN85JU7100FXZA 85" class JU7100 4K ultra-HD smart TVs 1 Trans-Lux 1x34' curved 6mm LED ticker 12 Tripp Lite B126-1A1 HDMI-over-Cat5/6 active extender kits, box-style

transmitters and receivers for video and audio List is edited from information supplied by KniTec Inc. and Peppermill Resorts.

pixel pitch of the cabinet. Do that across a vertical string of LED panels, and it looks like a white line running through the videowall.”

Devine said he had recommended that PDS do the installation of the mount and wall. “It’s just critical to get these installations right the first time,” he stressed. “In the space it is installed, there was only one quarter-inch of room for error from left to right.” However, when Peppermill’s staff decided to do it themselves, PDS put together one corner of a mount-and-panel assembly as a guide, and then shipped that and detailed instructions to the casino. PDS also remained available for consultation during the 10-day installation period.

What further complicated things was the sportsbook’s not being able to stop operating during the renovation. Christiansen estimated that to shut down during installation could have cost as much in lost revenues as the videowall itself cost—more than $3 million. Therefore, an immense drape was put in place over each section of the wall as work progressed, with the remaining video displays used until their areas were overtaken by the expanding Samsung behemoth. Ness said that, had the project team been compelled only to work very late nights and early mornings, it would have taken as long as three months for them to complete it; instead, it was done in 10 days. (Besides, in truth, there’s never a good time to close a sportsbook in Nevada, right?) “We did it right after the Kentucky Derby, and, a week before the Preakness, we were open,” Ness added with pride.

Cables And Networks As the videowall was being installed, Peppermill’s technicians were also running cabling back from the wall to a control room, where the S-Box signage players and DirecTV modulators sat in racks alongside BrightSign and Scala distribution systems for the other video displays in the sportsbook. Those displays include Samsung screens

used to show scores, as well as 24-inch ViewSonic touchscreens for the private Box Seat betting booth area of the book (which receive a feed from the main videowall).

In addition, two Samsung 85-inch 4K displays are each divided into 16 different view sections, providing 32 separate preview monitors for the various content feeds. A pair of Crestron CP3 3-Series control systems serves to manage all the signal distribution.

The racks also hold some 40 Cisco 1Gb switches, which route some of the 4K video from the casino’s network, connected using 10Gb fiber connections. The AV in the sportsbook is not on a separate network, but the video does take advantage of the integration of the Crestron DM NVX processing with the casino’s existing local area network (LAN). The integration, done with the knowledge and help of the property’s Director of IT, Nate Estes, lets the NVX apply its updated High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) codes to the video content that’s protected by that Intel-based copy-protection format. “That is actually a huge deal—much more so than it might seem—because it means

The sportsbook's control room also holds racks for its signage players and DirecTV modulators, as well about 40 1Gb switches, which route some of the 4K video from the casino’s network, connected using 10Gb fiber connections.

there are no access issues to much of that video,” Ness affirmed. “We don’t have to work around the HDCP because the NVX does it for us. It can get tricky, because all the [video] streams are in 4K, even if the games they’re carr ying aren’t.”

Much of the cabling from the control room to the videowall comes through a break-in wall put there for that purpose.

During the construction period, three new Middle Atlantic equipment racks were put in place for the new AV systems; they were positioned three feet directly in front of four existing racks in that space. “There had been an analog control system there, and we programmed the new Crestron NVX-350 codecs in place,” Ness said, using much of the existing Cat5 cabling that was already there,

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to them. It was all part of a vision to make this sportsbook something great to look at.

After all, 30,000 people a week walk past and see it. It has to be gorgeous.”

Maintaining Excellent Audio

The sportsbook’s control room manages all its video feeds using a pair of 85-inch 4K displays that are each divided into 16 different view sections, providing 32 separate preview monitors for the various content feeds.

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which could support the 4K video content and which enabled significant cost savings.

Those same encoders (there are 103 of them in total, as well as 78 NVX-350C encoder/ decoder cards) are used to feed BrightSign digital signage displays in the area.

The massive new videowall joins another large videowall already in place in the sportsbook. That 3.5mm-pitch, 77'x6' wall is broken into eight separate 10x6 videowalls and creates what Ness described as “a completely immersive environment within the sportsbook—something that’s really reinforced by the curvature of the new videowall. It’s like an IMAX sportsbook. We’re really changing a lot of what’s considered the norm for sportsbooks.”

It’s not just about the scale, either. Ness said Peppermill is also reimagining how content is relayed to visitors. For instance, the odds on various games, transmitted from William Hill, the UK-based odds maker, are usually displayed on their own video real estate, using blocky, red-andblack digital digits that evoke 1980s-vintage video-game graphics. By contrast, Peppermill displays them on a dozen strategically placed 75-inch Samsung screens, as well as feeding them into a ticker for the Box Seat displays. “We had to sort of train guests as to where to look to find the odds after we finished the new sportsbook design,” Ness revealed. “But, now, they say where we’ve put them makes much more sense

The audio for the spor tsbook didn’t change much from what had been in place before. The space still has three separate zones: One dedicated to horse-race calls; another is centered on the main televised sports event of the moment; and another zone is usually kept muted, acting as a barrier between the two. Existing SoundTube commercial-grade speakers were kept in place, although some were slightly repositioned so as better to focus the sound around the new videowall. There are no subwoofers. The installation of the new videowall was also an opportunity to run cabling to the 65 Behringer MicroAMP HA400 four-channel headphone amplifiers that now have a jack installed in each of the Box Seat booths.

The lack of very much new gear certainly doesn’t mean audio wasn’t considered important for the sportsbook’s renovation, however. “Sound is so important to sports in general, including betting [on them],” Ness affirmed. “It can literally double or triple the intensity of the experience.” Ness added that control of the ambient level in the sportsbook is its most important sonic aspect. An existing Peavey MediaMatrix NION is used to keep the level in the area between 80dBA and 85dBA, along with DSP audio-compression processing to help limit the volume differences between video feeds.

(Here’s another bit of wagering-AV trivia: Certain racetracks tend to be louder than others, with Del Mar Thoroughbred Club racetrack (in California) and Aqueduct Racetrack (in New York) being among the best at controlling the level of their broadcastaudio feeds.) In a related move, the casino installed 30 JBL VTX A12 and 20 JBL VTX A8 enclosures in its concert-area PA system.

Peppermill’s sportsbook is one of the first of what is expected to become a new generation of betting parlors to come out of the gate in the wake of the newly liberalized regulations around sports wagering. Will audio, video and lighting be a key to their success, as entertainment moves deeper into an immersive and engaging environment? Odds are, they will. In fact, you can probably bet on it.

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The 21,000-square-foot Boathouse, topped by a tented Pavilion, towers 53 feet above Gathering Place’s largest body of water and offers views of much of the property.

Photos below: Tulsa OK’s Gathering Place is a $465 million, 100-acre park that’s filled with fun activities and eye-catching sights. Its first phase opened last September, and the spaces are riddled with AV devices. You just have to find them!

By Dan Daley

100 Acres Of Discreet AV

Tulsa OK’s Gathering Place creates an ‘organic’ attraction.

If ever there were an installed-AV version of Where’s Waldo?, it might just be in Tulsa OK. Gathering Place, the $465 million, 100acre park whose first phase opened in Oklahoma’s second-largest city last September, funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation and designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA), is riddled with AV devices. You just have to find them…or not.

Ford AV was selected as AV integrator for this immense project, one of the largest and most ambitious parks ever created with private funds, and given specific instructions. “The whole point was to hide the AV to make it invisible to the people who would use the park,” Ryan Dickerson, Ford AV’s Project Manager on Gathering Place, said. “The park is designed to look ver y organic, so you don’t want the technology intruding on that.”

At the same time, parts of Gathering Place will be made available for outside rentals, suiting corporate events, presentations and the like. As such, the AV had to be contemporary and robust.

Below: Outside the Boathouse, 32 rockencased speakers and six “shrub” speakers cover a children’s picnic area.

The faux rock casings are naturally waterproof.

Hiding In The Woods As a first step, Dickerson and his team rewrote some of the initial AV specifications that accompanied the original designs, which they concluded were impractical for the scale of the project—for instance, replacing extenders that fell short on distance. Ford AV upgraded some of the key items, such as speakers, opting for more powerful Meyer Sound MM-4XPs, 33 of which are placed among rooms in two main areas—Williams Lodge and ONEOK Boathouse—that we’ll soon explore.

The clearest example of the subtlety sought for the AV systems is found—if you look carefully enough—in the thatched ceiling of the Great Hall in Williams Lodge, a 25,000-square-foot fusion of glass, sandstone and steel. “[The designers] wanted the landscape stone to look like it was peeled away and the building was set inside it,” Jeff Stava, Executive Director and Trustee of Tulsa’s Gathering Place, told the Tulsa World. “They wanted it to look natural. That’s why the stones are so big. Sandstone boulders used to build the Lodge Can you find the speakers? In-ceiling models are hidden in the Lodge’s undulating ceiling, made with six species of wood that cost a reported $3 million.

50 Sound & Communications March 2019

Gathering Place is designed to look very organic and natural. As a result, technology had to be subtle, so as not to intrude on that.

Prior to installation—note the speaker wire hanging from one opening on the lower left side— the speaker holes resembled knotholes in the wood.

weigh from a half-ton to three-and-a-half tons, and must be hoisted into place.”

The building is boxed by two-inchthick, floor-to-ceiling glass and topped by an undulating ceiling made with six species of wood that cost a reported $3 million. A number of Meyer Sound UP4XP in-ceiling speakers are inserted into the strands that make up the ceiling, some more closely resembling natural knotholes than transducers. Dickerson pointed to the brackets used to hold the Meyer Sound speakers in place in the Lodge, which had to be installed inverted to minimize the space they took up and let the speakers sit closer to the thatched wood strips. “They also had to be painted individually, [so as] to match the wood they are attached to,” he added.

The Pavilion has 27 custom-painted Meyer Sound MM-4XP surface-mount speakers, creating an immersive ambience. Tannoy CMS 603DC BM speakers are installed in the Lodge’s lower-level restaurant and bar areas, par t of the original design specifications. In addition, the Lodge has a 20-foot-wide drop-down projection screen. A projector lift was initially specified, but the ceiling’s height made that impractical; as a result, the still-to-be-acquired projector will instead be wheeled in on a cart. Once in place, it will be able to take in content from three floor-mounted input boxes and controlled via a Crestron DM-MD16X16 16x16 DigitalMedia switcher.

The Parlor, another space located midlevel within the Lodge, is also intended for corporate rentals. It’s fitted with a Chief SL236SP projector mount and a 20foot screen, as well as four Meyer Sound UP-4XP speakers and two floorboxes.

Both spaces also have Shure ULXD4 wireless microphone systems.

Two other key structures help define Gathering Place’s physical footprint. A community deck, known as the Boathouse, topped by a tented Pavilion, towers 53 feet above the venue’s largest body of water and offers views of much of the property. The 21,000-square-foot building has three levels: On top is the overlook, offering views of the park and downtown Tulsa, as well as the Vista Restaurant, which features fine dining inside and casual food outside; the second floor is dedicated to classrooms, activities and ad-

ministrative offices; and a fully equipped dock is at ground level.

Each of the second-floor activity areas is outfitted with LCD displays and Tannoy speakers; the larger of the two areas has a Draper scissor lift for a projector that will illuminate the space’s north wall, which has been treated with reflective paint to allow it to be used as a projection surface. “And, on each of the [dropdown] projector lifts, we took pieces of the wood, provided by specialists Wood Systems, Inc., from those ceilings and at-

tached that to the bottom of the lift panels.

[That way,] they’d look like part of the ceiling when they were retracted,” Dickerson added. “We had to get ver y creative, and we were working with the kind of vendors that you’d find on a high-end residential AV project, rather than a commercial one. We had to get ver y creative.”

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Gathering Place’s natural performance venue—a bowl area called the QuikTrip Great Lawn, near the Boathouse—can hold an estimated 5,000 people. The Roots took the stage for the grand opening concert.

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commercial attenuator 1 Chief CMA470 above-tile storage accessory 2 Chief SL236SP SMART-LIFT automated projector mounts

(for suspended ceiling installations, 120V) 2 Cisco SG350-28MP 28-port gigabit PoE managed switches 2 Crestron C3RY-8 3-Series control cards – 8 relay ports 1 Crestron CEN-CI3-3 3-Series card interface – 3 slots 2 Crestron CP3N 3-Series control systems 21 Crestron DMC-4K-C-HDCP2 HDBaseT certified 4K DigitalMedia 8G+

input cards for DM switchers 5 Crestron DMC-4K-CO-HD-HDCP2 2-channel HDBaseT

certified 4K DigitalMedia 8G+ output cards for DM switchers 4 Crestron DMC-4K-HDO 2-channel 4K scaling HDMI output

cards for DM switchers 2 Crestron DM-MD16X16 16x16 DigitalMedia switchers 2 Crestron DM-PSU-16 16-port PoDM power supplies for DM

8G+ I/O cards 8 Crestron DM-RMC-4K-SCALER-C 4K DigitalMedia 8G+

receivers and room controllers w/scalers 9 Crestron DM-TX-201-C DigitalMedia 8G+ transmitters 2 Crestron HD-MD-400-C-E DM Lite – HD scaling auto switchers and HDMI-over-Catx extenders 1 Crestron MPC-M5-B-T media presentation controller

M5 (black) 2 Crestron TSW-1060-B-S 10.1" touchscreens (black, smooth) 1 Da-Lite 21790LSM tensioned Advantage Electrol screen 3 Denon DN-500BD Blu-ray, DVD and CD players 2 Draper 300593 SLX environmental airspace housings (black) 1 Draper SLX17 scissor lift 1 Extron DVS 605 AD 5-input, HDCP-compliant scaler w/ 3G/HD-SDI

out and audio switching 12 Furman PL-PRO DMC 20A power conditioners w/lights,

volt/ammeters 52 Sound & Communications March 2019

2 JBL Professional Control 67HC/T narrow 75° coverage high-ceiling

pendant speakers 13 Lab.gruppen LUCIA 240/2M compact matrix amps (2x120W) 2 Luxul XMS-1010P 10-port/8 PoE+ gigabit managed switches 33 Meyer Sound MM-4XP miniature self-powered speakers 9 Meyer Sound MPS-488HP 8-channel external power supplies 15 Meyer Sound UP-4XP ultracompact speakers (48VDC) 2 Middle Atlantic PDT-2X1020 20-amp PDT thin power strips 2 Minuteman RPM1521E 2-port remote power managers 2 QSC CX1202V 2-channel 70V power amps 1 QSC CX602V 2-channel 70V power amp 6 QSC Q-SYS Core 110f processors 3 Samsung OH55F 55" full-HD outdoor signage displays w/embedded

power boxes 3 Sennheiser AM 2 antenna front-mount kits 3 Sennheiser EZL 2020-20L charger cases 30 Sennheiser HDE 2020-D-II stethoset Tourguide receivers 3 Sennheiser SR2020-D-US single-channel, rackmountable RF transmitters 16 Shure ULXD1 wireless bodypack transmitters 16 Shure ULXD2/SM86 handheld wireless mic transmitters 4 Shure ULXD4Q quad-channel digital wireless receivers 16 Shure WL185 lavalier condenser mics 1 Soundcraft Ui16 16-input, remote-controlled digital mixer 10 Tannoy CMS 603DC BM 6" full-range ceiling speakers w/dual concentric drivers 4 TASCAM CD-500B single-rackspace CD players w/balanced outs 6 TIC GS3 8" outdoor, weather-resistant, omnidirectional, in-ground speakers 32 TIC TFS10-CN 8" professional, outdoor, weather-resistant, coaxial

rock speakers 1 TouchSystems V463-TS-2 46" touch monitor 1 Wiremold OFR48-4 OFR Series overfloor raceway 4-gang box List is edited from information supplied by Ford AV.

TIC GS3 “shrub” speakers cover a children’s picnic area. The faux rock casings are naturally waterproof, but Ford AV went a step further: The integrator waterproofed each speaker connection using Aquaseal waterproof sealer and then put the transformer for each speaker inside its own enclosure, which was also closed up with Aquaseal caulking. In fact, all the outdoor cabling runs were covered in Aquaseal caulking and then topped with rocks cemented together. “We had to make sure we got all the connections right,” Dickerson emphasized, “because, chances are, no one is ever going to see those wires again.”

Those speakers and the others, including a garden area that uses Meyer Sound MM-4XPs, take most of their content from a Crestron media server, located in a central intermediate distribution frame (IDF) closet. That space also contains the Crestron DigitalMedia control system’s matrix and the DSP for the Meyer Sound speakers, as well as the amplifiers for the Tannoy speakers and a Soundcraft Ui16 mixing console that’s accessed through a wireless iPad controller.

“This is another area where you really have to look hard to find the audio,” Dickerson said of the outdoor speakers, adding that the rock speakers are further camouflaged by actual shrubber y that was imported from France and Germany.

“We worked with all the other vendors to make sure ever ything was as hidden as possible, but in as natural a way as possible, too. It took a lot of time and effort, but that was the architect’s vision for the park.” (The New York Times, which likened Gathering Place’s vastness to the scale of Central Park in New York NY, reported that Michael Van Valkenburgh, in discussing the challenges and triumphs of Gathering Place, offered a Confuciuslike statement: “A limitation is the beginning of a gift.”)

In addition to the projection capabilities found in the Lodge and the Boathouse, there are also 55-inch Samsung OH55F digital signage displays installed outside The Patio restaurant, which show menu options and other dynamic information.

In addition, inside the Lodge, an interactive Samsung display pays homage to Gathering Place’s donors.

One classic AV challenge on large-scale

projects took on an even greater dimension at Gathering Place—namely, staging of materials. “Because of the park-like nature of the project, there weren’t really any proper drop-off areas where we could stage materials for the next phase or the next day,” Dickerson recalled of the 66-acre first phase of the project. “As a result,” he quipped, “we did a ton of walking!”

Challenging, But Attainable Gathering Place has its own in-house AVL point person. Buddy Wilson, the ven-

ue’s AV Specialist, and the former House Technician at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, said that achieving the goal of AVL invisibility, while challenging, was attainable. Referring to the wood ceiling of the Lodge, he shared another strategy to help hide the AV: The spaces between the wood slats are backed with black material; as such, many of the audio speakers are placed so that they’re camouflaged by that. “Against the black background, many of the speakers just kind of fade to black (continued on page 86)

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By Pete Putman, CTS

54 Sound & Communications March 2019

A brave new world in which profits are shifting from hardware to services.

As industries go, ours is comparatively young. When the National Audio-Visual Association (NAVA) started up in 1939, AV hardware was the focus, but it was largely limited to things like filmstrip and 16mm motionpicture projectors and record players. Audio-reinforcement systems were large, clunky products loaded with tubes, driving singleor dual-speaker systems in oversized housings.

Flash-for ward three decades.

I was on the AV crew at my high school, and things hadn’t changed substantially. We were still using filmstrip projectors (accompanied by 33 1/3 records with a “chime” to tell us when to advance the strip) and we had a fleet of Bell & Howell 16mm sound projectors to maintain.

We also had an ample stock of overhead projectors and even a few opaque projectors. (I’m really dating myself now!)

The tube-based sound system in our school auditorium was specified and installed by the local electronic components dealer, Federated Purchaser. This sort of arrangement wasn’t unusual back in the 1960s, given that there were ver y few dedicated audiovisual integrators in the metropolitan New York NY area.

For that matter, many AV installations were per formed by licensed electricians, who often found themselves fitting speakers, screens and rudimentar y control systems into classrooms

and conference rooms that had already been designed and built. No worries, though—a pull-down projection screen was attached to a wall and the filmstrip/ slide/film projector was wheeled in on a cart, as needed.

A decade later, the scene had changed slightly at my first corporate job, in which I ran the AV facilities at American Express’ headquarters in lower Manhattan.

Multi-image had arrived, and a complete renovation of the “projection room” on the top floor of the building involved an integrator from New Jersey installing nine slide projectors, a 16mm film projector and a xenon-powered slide projector, all to light up an enormous, custom-made piece of rear-projection glass that measured 12 feet across. It was so large that it had to be delivered, by helicopter, to the rooftop.

In 1979, that integrator’s highest billings came from labor and hardware. The AVL Show Pro control system, projectors and a 19-inch television monitor on a cart, along with a three-quarter-inch U-Matic playback deck, had a healthy markup of 25 to 30 percent. Additional fees came from designing the project and, of course, wiring ever ything together into racks. (That was the first AV installation on which I worked.)

Those nice markups on AV hardware continued through the next two decades. It was a time characterized by the expanded use of video cameras and players; the installation of CRT, and then LCD, video projectors; more advanced solid-state sound mixers and amplifiers; matrix switchers; multitrack reel-to-reel and cassette audio recorders and players; and increasingly elaborate control systems, coupled with shade and lighting controls. Hardware was a cash cow!

Well, Times Change That was the state of affairs until the turn of the centur y, when more and more consumer products made their way into the commercial AV world. Combined with the transition to hardware being manufactured overseas, prices plummeted. Video cameras that once sold for $25,000 could now be had for 10 cents on the dollar. Video/ data projectors that once cost $7,000 and up are available at office-supply chains for as little as $300.

Today, distributors are handling the lion’s share of product sales. Many dealer-

ships have merged or sold out, with the smaller “mom-and-pop” shops being almost nonexistent. The massive industry changeover to signal distribution on the network has put more IT departments in charge of AV facilities, and the explosive growth of wireless collaboration platforms (coupled with ever-larger and cheaper display screens) in many cases has obviated the need for dedicated, fully integrated meeting and instruction spaces.

Intriguingly, although electronic gadgets and the interconnections to support them

have continued to grow more sophisticated, the general public’s comprehension of how the underlying technology works appears to be decreasing. We’re using some pretty smart hardware these days, and more of it is incorporating artificial intelligence (AI).

But most of us don’t really understand how it works, nor do we really care to understand.

What’s The Good News?

The good news is that diminishing profits from hardware sales can be offset with

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Reproduced with express permission of AVIXA. Reproduced with express permission of AVIXA.

new income streams that are based on the deliver y of ser vices and software, providing what’s known as recurring monthly revenue. Your mobile carrier doesn’t especially care which particular smartphone you buy or how you use it; it just counts on your wireless-ser vices check, and those of thousands of others, showing up ever y month.

Other changes are also at work. The new business model for software companies is to sell yearly subscriptions to their programs, with automatic updates and 24/7 technical support. The same can be done with AV control and monitoring software. Larger companies that lease laptops and ser vers include firewall protection, software upgrades and a fixed number of service calls within annual contracts. So, why not do the same for commercial AV installations? (More on that in a moment.)

56 Sound & Communications March 2019

The shift away from a focus on hardware design and installation, and toward softwaredriven managed AV ser vices, will have a profound effect on the commercial AV industr y over the next decade. In response, AVIXA, in concert with research firm IHS Markit, has undertaken a more comprehensive study of the trend with its annual Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis (IOTA).

For last year, AVIXA estimated the global value of all products and services offered by the commercial AV channel to be approximately $186 billion, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3 percent through 2023 to reach $229 billion. Within that number, overall ser vices (design, installation, managed services, programming and rental/ staging) accounted for $33.2 billion, or nearly 18 percent, of the overall total for last year.

The value of overall ser vices is expected to rise through the forecast period, reaching 22 percent in 2023. AVIXA believes that the increase in percentage is due, at least in part, to increasing growth of managed services as a subcategory of ser vices; it forecasts that, while this segment generated $3.9 billion last year, it will rise to $4.7 billion in 2023. That’s a CAGR of 3.8 percent, which is slightly below the overall industr y expected growth.

Let’s look more closely at some of these next-generation services and products that will generate future profits for AV integrators.

Equipment Leasing Let’s talk about leasing. Cars? Yes. Trucks? Sure. Buildings? Of course! Computers? Makes sense. So, why not lease commercial AV hardware, too? After all, customers are now buying functionality—an experience, if you will—not hardware. At one time, we might have taken pride in a top-notch projector and screen installation, excited about how the control system seamlessly operates the lights and shades, rolls down the screen and reveals the hidden projector. The problem is, that’s not the meeting/learning space of today. Plenty of vintage AV facilities still have VHS decks, analog distribution amplifiers and video monitors gathering dust in racks.

Reproduced with express permission of AVIXA.

No one knows what to do with the stuff, as wireless collaboration systems have replaced those distribution amplifiers and smartphones have taken over for DVD players.

Here’s a possible solution: Why not borrow a good idea from the IT world and offer customers an AV installation bundle with the latest in wireless connectivity and presentation software? It can be designed and installed as before, but with a new wrinkle added: The customer is offered a replace-and-upgrade feature at the end of a specified lease period, with said lease including scheduled maintenance and repair/replace warranties.

As with cars, trucks and computer hardware, the customer doesn’t have to sink valuable capital into hardware that will quickly depreciate or that will be rendered obsolete. The client will have the latest technology (or something close to it) in his or her facility, and he or she won’t be stuck tr ying to recycle obsolete gear. For integrators, the lease model provides a fixed, predictable, recurring source of monthly and annual revenue. If the lease package is priced correctly, it should provide a reasonable profit on hardware and installation, plus the anticipated cost of repair/replace warranties.

Service And Support Contracts And Warranties Depending on who maintains their AV facilities and where their technical expertise lies, customers might ask about extended technical support. This is another profit opportunity, especially as it pertains to mission-critical AV facilities (think of processcontrol and command-and-control installations). Extended support (or 24/7, as it’s popularly known) isn’t a new idea for our industr y, but it might become a requirement for any integrator to bid on a project.

IT managers are more likely to speak in terms of Quality of Service (QoS), given that they are maintaining computer networks that do, indeed, run 24/7. For example, it’s not unusual for customers to specify that AV hardware should come with redundant power supplies; that request is only going to become more common as our industry adopts AV transport over network switches.

Given the relatively low cost to replace hardware—especially when weighed against the inconvenience the customer experiences when hardware fails—AV integrators can and should offer extended-service plans and warranties by which they’ll repair, or outright replace, faulty equipment. These plans and warranties would ride on the back of the original factor y warranties, and their pricing should reflect duty cycles and expected failure rates.

The warranties can be offered as part of a monthly charge or as add-ons, priced at a discounted hourly rate, plus parts, for expedited ser vice.

There’s another good reason to offer extended warranties, and that’s the consumer-centric hardware that’s now often integral to AV installations. (Think of iPads used as touchscreen inter faces and large-screen consumer televisions used as presentation displays.) These products offer limited consumer warranties, which range from 30 days to 90 days; beyond a year of operation, they’re more costeffective to replace than to repair. All this anticipated risk can be priced into extended warranties, and, given the relatively light duty cycles most AV equipment enjoys, failure rates should be low.

Software As A Service (SaaS) The eventual demise of expensive, proprietary AV software (particularly for control applications) at the hands of app-driven control systems that run under Windows, Apple and Android operating systems isn’t far off. The days when AV integrators could earn (continued on page 87)

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March 2019

Sound & Communications 57

VOICES MULTI-SITE CHURCHES ARE UTILIZING ADVANCED AV TO REACH THE MASSES.

Editor’s Note: For many years, the house of worship space has been among the commercial AV industry’s strongest and most reliable.

At a time when end users are more empowered than ever, given the fully blossomed AV/IT convergence and the universal focus on memorable experiences, Sound & Communications sought out members of the Christian community whose churches have embraced multi-site worship and streamed/played-back services. Our writer, Alesia Hendley, herself a lifelong veteran of church production, sought their wisdom about the contemporar y multi-site worship experience, how it is ef fectuated, and its challenges and triumphs. We hope you enjoy the insights she gleaned.

By Alesia Hendley Coming up, I think I might have attended church more days out of the week than I did school—at least, it seemed that way. My father started a church when I was 12, and, from an early age, learning audio became a major focus of mine. Heading up all the AV was huge responsibility, especially for a young teenager. And, as the church grew rapidly, I began to look at my role more like a full-time job.

Honestly, I’d fallen in love with the impact I could have by using technology to heighten the overall experience of worshippers in my father’s church.

Make no mistake: Our church was anything but traditional. During watchnight ser vice, you might walk into a sanctuary jammed with strobe lights, and with Kirk Franklin blaring through the room. Al-

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58 Sound & Communications March 2019

ROB SCHUMANN ‘THE FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE IS THE WORSHIP LIVESTREAM IS BEING HELD TO THE STANDARD OF TELEVISION CONCERT

Fairhaven Church has taken a multi-site approach for about nine years. Fairhaven spreads the gospel via three physical campuses and an online one.

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Love & Truth Church has a professional production setup. As a result, it has capitalized on the power of multiple campuses for more than a decade.

ternatively, you might walk into a full-blown concert, with no singers other than my father, and with me playing a track behind him. My father’s church started small, but we always found ways to grow—keeping up with the latest technology was not only necessar y, but also a growth driver.

I remember watching the big-name preachers on TV during the rare moments I wasn’t at church myself. Billy Graham’s, Benny Hinn’s and Joyce Meyer’s broadcasts would come on early in the morning, and they’d be flawless. I just knew that, one day, our church would make it on TV. However, by the time that we reached that level, Facebook and livestreaming had arrived. Having been immersed in technology for years, I took an interest in streaming, noting not only its power but also its limitations; for example, many of the streams I watched suffered from audio issues.

In the mid-2000s, our church moved from Massachusetts to Houston TX. Many members of our congregation still wanted to be part of the church and enjoy our ser vices, however. Although we weren’t a small church anymore, we also weren’t a 60 Sound & Communications March 2019

megachurch that would be broadcast on morning TV. So, in 2008, we decided that streaming was the best option, especially because everyone was getting Facebook.

Even though, back then, churches couldn’t do half the things that can be done now, our streamed ser vices kept us connected with our members back home, while also expanding our network and reaching the masses.

My family’s stor y isn’t a par ticularly unique one, as there are countless churches whose congregations have outgrown existing facilities, whose leadership is looking to expand to satellite campuses or whose members, although no longer able to attend personally, still want to experience services each week. In this article, we’ll meet several worship leaders and church technical personnel, who’ll share their insights about multi-site worship, livestreaming and related issues.

Valuable Insights Let’s first turn to North Way Christian Community (www.northway.org), whose Executive Pastor – Multi-Site/Interim

ZAC CUPPLES ‘OUR MODEL IS THAT EVERY CAMPUS HAS ITS OWN LOCAL CAMPUS PASTOR. THAT IS THE PERSON WHO FACILITATES THE SERVICES, DOES ALL THE CHECKING IN AND PASTORAL CARE WITH THE LOCAL CONGREGATION, AND ALL OF THAT.’

Wexford Campus Pastor, Dave D’Angelo, shared his insights with us. North Way has been a multi-site church for more than 10 years, and it has six locations. According to D’Angelo, “The primary reason we launched then, and still launch now, is because we want to keep the local church local. Our campus locations are the result of a core group of people, from a specific area, who had been traveling too far to be fully involved and engaged in the life of a campus. By opening a new location near them, the church truly became local for them again. For us, [having multiple sites] is about the ability to reach more people

switches between cameras and has lower thirds with the pastor’s key points, reflecting what congregants at the main campus get to see. “[The satellite campuses] are basically receiving a stereo feed of video, where the left channel is the ‘virtual pastor’ shot and the right channel is the IMAG feed,” Cupples added. “It all feeds into a single box, and the audio is synced up with both. They just pan it to whatever source they need. It’s pretty incredible, honestly.”

Although houses of worship are, of

course, quite different from most other vertical markets that Sound & Communications covers, one commonality is beyond dispute: Each solution must be unique to the end user’s needs. That’s why, for this piece, we sought the perspective of numerous churches, from different parts of the country, serving different kinds of congregations. Joe Way, author of the bestselling book Producing Worship: A Theology of Church Technical Ar ts, who contracts as Tech Director for the Aliso Viejo CA

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and help existing people who call North Way home become more engaged in their church.”

For North Way, streaming has been a tremendous help as it has branched out to different sites. Its approach centers on making a recording of the Saturday night ser vice message. That’s then delivered to each of North Way’s locations, with a video link ser ving as a backup. Describing the church’s locations as divided between a “broadcast” campus and “endpoint” campuses, D’Angelo said, “Five campuses experience playback video for their Sunday worship, and this comprises 12 different ser vices.”

We also spoke to Zac Cupples, Media Director with Love & Truth Church (www.loveandtruthchurch.com), which has capitalized on the power of multiple campuses since around 2007. “We are unique in a way, because most multi-site churches are focused on big cities,” he explained. “We’re in a more rural region, and, because of that, we’re in smaller towns and cities. But we offer something that we feel isn’t available in those places other wise.”

With regard to streaming, Love & Truth relies on Haivision. According to Cupples, “We start our ser vices at the top of the hour (9am or 11am), and our satellite campuses have a five-minute buffer (9:05am or 11:05am). We stream to a cloud service, and it archives everything we send and then encodes it in a way that our campuses get a constant bitrate. So, there’s no fluctuation in the quality of the video they’re showing. It’s basically a DVR-type playback on their end—they can be five minutes or five hours behind.”

He continued, “As we’re sending out the video to the cloud ser vice, it’s caching on their end even if they’re playing back.

The five-minute buffer at the top of the ser vice just helps make sure we start ahead of them and they can start building up that cache for playback.”

Love & Truth’s main campus actually sends out two separate video feeds, which are then synced. “The campuses all have a center screen that is a head-to-toe shot of our lead pastor,” Cupples said. “That doesn’t move, and it’s sometimes referred to as the ‘virtual pastor’ shot. They also get our image magnification (IMAG) feed, which is our multi-camera feed.” That one

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DAVE D’ANGELO ‘OUR CAMPUS LOCATIONS ARE THE RESULT OF A CORE GROUP OF PEOPLE, FROM A SPECIFIC AREA, WHO HAD BEEN TRAVELING TOO FAR TO BE FULLY INVOLVED AND ENGAGED IN THE LIFE OF A CAMPUS.’

Saddleback Church (www.saddleback.com) campus, generously added his expertise.

Notably, Saddleback’s streaming ser ves a whopping 19 other campuses.

According to Way, “As a campus, we have been doing multi-site streaming since day one, because the motto of Saddleback is ‘One Church, Many Locations.’ We believe that, whether you’re sitting in the main worship center at the Lake Forest CA campus, or whether you’re in Hong Kong or San Diego, you should have the same experience.” He underscored the point, saying, “We are all part of the same church family. The size and reach of the church demand it.”

Saddleback multi-site streams only for the weekend ser vices on Saturdays and Sundays, with the exception of special events that might happen simultaneously at other campuses. “There are three main options for receiving the feed,” Way explained. “We send a live satellite signal from the main campus during the service, as well as an edited version of the Saturday service early in the morning on Sunday, which can be captured and edited, as needed. Likewise, we have a livestream via web, and [we offer] an Amazon Web Services download.” Depending on the campus, the time of service and the system setups, each location can select which would work best. “Most use the direct satellite feed,” Way added.

62 Sound & Communications March 2019

North Way Christian Community has been a multi-site church for more than 10 years, and it has six locations.

Rob Schumann, Pastor, Ministry Arts, at Fairhaven Church (www.fairhaven.church) said his house of worship has taken a multisite approach for about nine years. “We opened our first multi-site campus in the spring of 2010,” he explained. “Our original location has experienced dynamic growth in membership and attendance over the past decade, increasing from the 1,000 range to 4,000-plus each week. While some additional construction was added over that time, the church is located in a residential area, which prevented us from undertaking any additional building projects, such as a larger worship space or parking deck.”

With such tremendous growth—more than 300 percent!—streaming has become a ver y powerful tool for Fairhaven, which star ted to spread the gospel via three physical campuses and an online one.

According to Schumann, “We see Fairhaven as one church in multiple locations. Adding multi-sites allows our members to attend church in their own communities, [giving them] a nearby place of worship where they can invite ‘unchurched’ friends, neighbors or coworkers.”

Challenges Amid Rising Expectations Each inter viewee to whom we spoke— indeed, each church across the countr y and around the world—takes a somewhat different approach, and, if they stream, they do so in their own way. But the underlying purpose is always the same: to spread the gospel, across all campuses, to all congregants, each week. Anyone who reads

Sound & Communications probably knows that, when technology is involved, there can be so many moving parts that one almost feels as though something could go awry at any moment. That certainly holds true for streaming, as well, especially given congregants’ rising expectations.

“Many of our members tune in when they are out of town or ser ving at one of the multi-sites,” Schumann remarked, “and we [had been] getting constant negative feedback. The fundamental issue is that the worship livestream is being held up to the standard of television concert broadcasts, and most people don’t realize the resources involved in that level of production.” Volunteer acquisition, training and retention are, and will remain, a constant challenge. Even so, Fairhaven plans to launch more multi-sites in the next several years. “As a site launches, tech specialists are initially supplied by the broadcast campus,” Schumann continued.

“As we upgrade equipment, our processes become more sophisticated and require [additional] training.”

Cupples chimed in about challenges, stating, “No matter what we do, it’s still going to be a live production, dealing with an insane amount of technology on every end. So, inevitably, something will go wrong.

We do our best to try to avoid that at all costs, but you’d be surprised how one little change can set off a chain reaction that you’d never dream could happen.”

And let’s add another ingredient to the mix: the possibility that the multi-site ex-

perience is excellent, but the online experience is lacking. According to Schumann, Fairhaven Church wrestled with just such an issue. “Our biggest headache has easily been the sound quality of the music in our worship broadcast,” he explained. “This does not af fect attendees at our multisites, but it’s been a frequent discussion for those who watch the entire service online. We’ve made many changes to what we do in the room, [which means that, now,] the worship music translates much better online.”

For Saddleback, which, as mentioned, broadcasts to well over a dozen campuses, the most pressing challenge centers on the locations themselves. “For example,” Way began, “some of our campuses meet in high schools and community centers. It can be a challenge to get a satellite dish installed or internet access to receive the live feeds.” He continued, “Getting the equipment racks together and sending out the signal is the easy part. Not knowing the factors we can’t control at the satellite locations is often the biggest challenge.”

Amazingly, we haven’t yet broached the subject of budget. No matter the vertical market—and regardless of whether a house of worship is a wildly successful megachur ch—budgetar y concer ns always exist, often involving set spending allowances for dif ferent depar tments/ projects. North Way’s D’Angelo addressed that aspect, saying, “One of the biggest challenges we face [is] the ever-increasing price of new gear/technology. Upgrading existing/aged gear [has to be balanced against] opening new locations in a timely and aligned fashion.” He espoused the wisdom of patiently seeking thorough solutions, rather than opting for a quick patch that won’t last and that’ll cost more over time. “It’s not just a challenge of budget resources,” he added, “but, rather, a challenge of prioritization and vision across multiple locations.”

Triumphs If success is defined as meeting adversity and then triumphing over it, each of our inter viewee churches is enjoying success with multi-site worship. In each case, the approach is slightly different, but no less effective.

Cupples explained how Love & Truth Church creates a meaningful experience

JOE WAY ‘WHEN THE CONGREGATION SERVES IN VARIOUS MINISTRIES; JOINS SMALL GROUPS; PRAYS AND CONNECTS WITH THE LOCAL, ON-SITE PASTOR; GREETS EACH OTHER; AND WORSHIPS/SINGS TOGETHER, THAT DEFINES A CHURCH.’

across its campuses. “Our model is that ever y campus has its own local campus pastor,” he commented. “That is the person who facilitates the ser vices, does all the checking in and pastoral care with the local congregation, and all of that.

On Sunday, each campus has its own live worship set, offering and connection cards, which is how we track who is there and how they sign up for events, etc.” The video playback only comes into play when it’s time for the sermon. “We use roll-in videos,” Cupples continued, “so we give them a timestamp, and they just punch that number into their DVR-type box and join from there. So, for example, ‘Hey, guys!

The sermon intro starts at 7:42.’” Then, when the preaching has concluded, the lead pastor at the main campus calls on the local campus pastors to close. “We message them, saying, ‘Hey! He ends at 46:24,’ which lets them know about the timeframe [when the] local pastor should be ready to come up and close out the ser vice,” he added. “It works pretty smoothly for us.”

Schumann explained that, at Fairhaven Church, all technical aspects help create a well-aligned, meaningful worship experience. “It’s a combination of lighting,

cameras and stage design,” he revealed.

“As we adapt our scenic look for different sermon series or seasonal emphases, our multi-sites reproduce a similar, smaller version so that the look of the sermon at the broadcast campus matches the rooms at the multi-sites. Our pastor is also ver y intentional about acknowledging and welcoming those attending the multi-sites each week.” Schumann continued, adding, “Each multi-site has a dedicated worship pastor who focuses on leading a team to produce a sacred and engaging worship ser vice in a modern context. Our worship teams lead a similar worship set at each campus.”

North Way Christian Community and Saddleback Church both depend on local pastoral staff to create a seamless, edifying worship experience. “Leadership, mission clarity and buy in, and connectedness of our church congregation and environment are just a few of the things that really help,” D’Angelo emphasized. “For us, strong local leadership at each campus, who invest in the relationships, as well as the worship service plan and environment, really make a big difference.”

Way chimed in, saying, “The main key is to build a community that is not [solely] about the message itself. When the congregation ser ves in various ministries; joins small groups; prays and connects with the local, on-site pastor; greets each other on the patio; and worships/sings together, that’s what defines [it] as a church.” He added, “The message-deliver y mode (i.e., via a livestream) becomes secondary to the ultimate experience.”

As multi-site churches grow in number and congregation populations swell, livestreaming and video playback will continue to be go-to options. Indeed, there is no doubt that technology has helped, and will continue help, many churches across the globe spread the gospel. However, having the human touch and evoking a community feel are just as important to cultivating an exceptional worship experience.

That kind of personal, communal worship might not have been possible via the television broadcasts I watched all those years ago when I was young girl, but it is being realized—week after week—in churches like those we’ve explored. And that is Good News, indeed.

March 2019

Sound & Communications 63

AN INTRODUCTION TO

MILAN

THE NEW AV NETWORK PROTOCOL FOR THE INDUSTRY,

BY THE INDUSTRY.

By James Oliver (Adamson), Henning Kaltheuner (d&b audiotechnik GmbH), Jeff Rocha (L-Acoustics), Bart Swinnen (Luminex) and Tim Boot (Meyer Sound)

Manufacturers under the umbrella of the Avnu Alliance created Milan to address the commercial AV industry’s need for a fully realized networking solution.

The commercial AV market is constantly evolving as products and systems become increasingly complex, all while expectations grow for a top-of-the-line experience.

To add to that complexity, the market has unique requirements for moving time-sensitive video, audio and data across the network, which has become paramount as AV increasingly resides on the network. End users and engineers, who are at the heart of this industr y, are experiencing burnout from system complexity, and they’re disappointed by a lack of functionality.

Now, complete systems and interoperability between devices have become key elements of the AV industr y’s value proposition, with a decreased emphasis on isolated, individual products and a greater focus on an integrated system. The network, which provides connectivity for individual components to work together, now becomes the grid that defines system architectures. The future of AV requires more than just individual products and components connecting 64 Sound & Communications March 2019

together, however; what it truly requires are the value and functionality that can only come from deep systems integration. Today, however, planning and handling of networks requires extensive IT management skills. That’s not what most audio and systems engineers signed up for.

Refocus On Relevant User Demands When it comes to networked audio platforms, the professional media industry’s requirements must be taken into account. At the most basic level, guaranteed delivery of high-quality audio, not subject to dropouts or latency, is required. However, the industry must effectuate this using a long-term, stable and viable platform. When making decisions about networking infrastructure, end users have to be confident that they’ve chosen an enduring standard and a network that can support them as their media and data needs scale—suiting them today, tomorrow and

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(L-R): Bart Swinnen (Luminex), Tim Boot (Meyer Sound), Jeff Rocha (L-Acoustics), Henning Kaltheuner (d&b audiotechnik GmbH) and James Oliver (Adamson).

even years into the future.

Many of today’s solutions have been knit together using proprietar y networking solutions, which require extensive design, installation and support work from industr y professionals, and which create risky propositions whose long-term viability is not guaranteed. As the network has evolved and continued to scale, so, too, has the opportunity for the industr y. The network should not be a competitive market on its own, nor should it be a bottleneck to innovation.

able and futureproof. It must be open for creativity to enable the creation of valuable products. And, today, we are seeing a convergence of audio, video and control on the same network, scaled across applications and markets.

The vision for the future of networking is encompassing the ease of the analog XLR connector and transforming it into full media and data interoperability. One resource to help manufacturers ensure a seamless, futureproof network is to use Ethernet and Audio Video Bridging (AVB).

Drivers For Change

AVB And The New Capabilities Of Ethernet

We, the manufacturer community, have to be in the driver’s seat. We have to create, manage and advocate for the change we want to see in the commercial AV industr y, and we must bring to life the vision of a complete media network—one that is easy to use, futureproof, open for creativity and scalable across markets, and one that represents a convergence of audio, video and control. So, where do we begin?

Manufacturers have to begin with owning the network as the foundation for their value proposition and make it a priority in all channels within the business, both external and internal. Manufacturers also must work with other companies, openly sharing information on networked products and collaborating on open standards to help ensure greater network interoperability.

The network should simply be easy, reli66 Sound & Communications March 2019

Despite rapidly growing technological advancements, most modern networked AV systems are based on 40-year-old Ethernet technology that is defined by IEEE standards. However, legacy Ethernet is not designed for real-time traffic, and it does not behave in a deterministic manner. That means data can be lost, networks can congest and the arrival time for a packet cannot be precisely determined.

The IEEE AVB standards are an enhancement to Ethernet itself, expanding upon Ethernet capabilities. Key characteristics include stream reser vation, which helps AVB switches reserve the bandwidth for a stream of media signals in a way that it cannot be affected by other traffic, and synchronization, which ensures control data and media signals can use one connec-

tion to a device. The setup is such that up to 75 percent of bandwidth is available for media streams, whereas 25 percent always remains for other data traffic.

When AVB is implemented, audio, video and data can coexist on one network, with one cable connection, without causing interference between the data packets. Another new feature in AVB Ethernet is that timing is built into the network itself. AVB networks are self-contained, synchronized structures. The timing is baked into the network hardware, so it is far more precise than any software-based synchronization, such as Precision Time Protocol (PTP).

Streams in AVB systems use the network time, together with the stream-reservation mechanism, to predetermine their arrival time at the receiver; media clocking is independent from the network time, which enables multiple media-clock domains to coexist on a single network.

In an AVB network, each stream can carry its own clock. The network provides a structure for media signals to be interconnected simply with cables, while also allowing for configuration of clock domains in exactly the way it is desired in a system.

This allows AVB to be utilized for many signals—from audio, to video, to data—scaling with available network bandwidth. In the near future, we look for ward to seeing video manufacturers implementing uncompressed video transport over AVB and adding it into Milan specifications.

Application layers in media networks and the role that Milan and AVB play.

Despite its many benefits, AVB adoption has been slow. Reasons include that other solutions were easier to implement, there were limited switches available and end users had a difficult time finding the value proposition for implementing AVB. AVB is a technically superior network technology, but it is not a solution. That’s because AVB makes up the network layer, but it doesn’t define implementation strategy and end-to-end interoperability in realworld applications. The result is that, to this point, AVB devices have lacked applicationlayer interoperability because there were no rules for stream formats, media-clock sources, redundancy and software control of the network. It was a little like having all the structural building blocks and technical requirements for easy multi-way communication, but not speaking the same language.

This application-layer interoperability was what was lacking with AVB…until now.

What Is Milan?

This is where the Milan solution enters.

A user-driven protocol for professional media, it was thoughtfully designed and developed, it’s built on open standards, and it offers the guarantee that all Milan devices will work together at a new level of convenience, reliability and functionality.

Milan builds on the technical benefits of the enduring open AVB standard, such as time synchronization and guaranteed quality of ser vice (QoS), as well as risk-free

coexistence of control and media data on one network. It provides defined device requirements at both the network and the application layer for media streams, formats, clocking and redundancy. The Milan protocol will enable fully realized, standardsbased networks for professional media with ensured reliability and determinism.

Milan works with Avnu-certified switches and guarantees the interoperability of the network ecosystem by adding essential agreements about the implementation of AVB technology, including requirements for compatible and compliant media formats, media clocking, redundancy and controller software. It also ensures those requirements are implemented correctly through compliance testing and certification of end devices. Milan offers the promise of an AV network that is guaranteed, open, futureproof and easy to use.

At InfoComm 2018, we, as commercial AV manufacturers working together under the umbrella of the Avnu Alliance, introduced Milan to the market. The industr y response was positive, with many end users, manufacturers, vendors and others excited to see major manufacturers— companies that are traditionally regarded as competitors—working together to create something important for the market. Collaboration of this sort among competitors to develop Milan couldn’t have occurred without the framework provided by the Avnu Alliance. Membership in Avnu gives

manufacturers a collective voice to define market requirements to meet the unique development needs for a fully realized commercial AV network solution.

What’s Next?

After InfoComm, the group continued to work behind the scenes so as further to develop Milan and offerings for the market.

We released the full suite of specification documents for Milan, representing almost two years’ work from technical workgroup members. Four separate specifications documents make up the Milan Specification Suite, all of them available at avnu.org/ specifications. The first is the Formats specification, which defines three stream format profiles from Milan based on the IEEE 1722-2016 Standard AAF Audio Format. This offers a less complex, more efficient format than others, such as AM824.

The second is Media Clocking, which defines the Milan required method for mediaclock synchronization. The third, Redundancy, outlines the ways that Milan helps commercial AV devices with AVB be able to endure a number of network failures.

The four th (and most recent) is the Device Discover y and Control specification. Milan relies on the IEEE 1722.1-2013 Standard for Device Discovery, Connection Management and Control Protocol. This standard is vast, and it allows for many interpretations. With this specification, Milan (continued on page 86) March 2019

Sound & Communications 67

DIGITAL SIGNAGE EXPO 2019

Sound & Communications’ Digital Signage Expo 2019 New Product Spotlight presents products that manufacturers repo after our production deadline will be featured in the Digital Signage Expo 2019 New Product Wrap-Up, as

SHARP PN-HB, PN-HM SERIES Sharp has expanded its Smart Signage display series. It has added 6 large-format, 4K ultra-HD displays. 3 are part of the PN-HB series: the 85" class (84 9­/16" diagonal) PN-HB851, 75" class (74 9­ ­/16" diagonal) PNHB751 and 65" class (64.5" diagonal) PN-HB651. The other 3 complete the PN-HM series: the 85" class (84 9­/16" diagonal) PN-HM851, 75" class (74 ­9­/16" diagonal) PN-HM751 and 65" class (64.5" diagonal) PN-HM651. The PN-HB and PN-HM series professional LCD displays are specified for 4K ultra-HD (3840x2160) resolution and equipped with a variety of inputs to support 4K60 playback. They come with a built-in SoC controller and Intel Mini OPS-compatible expansion slot for optional HDBaseT receiver board or wireless board. With the Sharp Open Architecture Platform, it allows 3rd-party software developers to create custom signage applications.

Sharp Electronics siica.sharpusa.com/professionaldisplays Booth #1207

PEC TV SHIELD PRO PORTRAIT TOUCH Protective Enclosures Company’s TV Shield PRO Portrait Touch is a weatherproof digital signage solution for wayfinding, interactive theater posters, menu boards and additional applications. It is a US-made, weatherproof, secure and robust outdoor touchscreen display and weatherproof TV enclosure. The company combined the TV Shield PRO Portrait enclosure and the IP65-rated IR touch frame to offer a great solution for outdoor touchscreen needs. With the TV Shield PRO Portrait Touch, customers can use any standard, off-the-shelf flatscreen TV, completely enclose it, and turn it into an indoor or outdoor interactive touchscreen. It features a tough metal housing that encases the

TV and a high-strength, shatter-resistant, anti-glare polycarbonate front shield. The water-resistant interactive display solution eliminates the risk of having to replace an expensive outdoor touchscreen TV or interactive digital sign if the screen breaks.

Protective Enclosures Company www.thedisplayshield.com Booth #1538

HALL RESEARCH U3CAT6 Hall Research’s U3CAT6 is a single-cable solution for extending SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen1 at distances of up to 328' over a Cat6a cable. Virtually all USB 3.1, 2.0 and 1.1 devices are supported, making it suitable for environments that utilize a variety of equipment: 4K videoconferencing cameras, flash drives, docking stations, mice, keyboards, interactive displays, whiteboards or any other USB device. An additional 100/1000BASE-T Ethernet extension port provides remote network access alongside 4 USB 3.1 Gen1 ports at the receiver. The U3CAT6 supports data rates up to 5Gb/s for USB 3.1 devices, and it’s 100% plug and play. No software drivers are needed for Windows, Linux, Chrome OS or macOS. Hall Research www.hallresearch.com Booth #3215

CHIEF FCASCA, FCAVCA Chief has introduced column adapter accessories to make it possible to add displays to I-beams, box-beams, trusses, and a variety of column shapes and sizes. They’re for use with Fusion, Fusion Modular and Thinstall Swing-Arm mounts. Integrators were looking for a different way to add flat panels to a variety of columns.

These structures are usually appealing opportunities for signage near paths of travel in commercial buildings,

68 Sound & Communications March 2019

stadiums and other large venues. The FCASCA wraps around round, concrete structural columns, and it can be cut to size in the field, which means you don’t have to know the exact dimensions of the column. The FCAVCA works with I-beams, box-beams and other various column shapes. Both solutions support 200lb. in portrait and landscape orientations.

Chief www.legrandav.com/products/chief/ accessories/display/miscellaneous/ column_mount_adapters Booth #1312

PLANAR EPX SERIES Planar’s EPX Series features a 100" 4K LCD display with ultra-HD resolution (3840x2160) that offers high brightness of 700 nits and a wide color gamut for excellent image quality and deep, rich color reproduction. Offering commercial-grade features, the EPX Series meets the requirements of retail and corporate digital signage applications. The EPX Series is mountable in portrait or landscape orientation, and it delivers high performance with 24/7 operation and reliability for extended use. It is also available in a precise and responsive multi-touch version.

Recognizing up to 20 simultaneous touchpoints at a time, the interactive touch model offers pin-point clarity and accuracy for users at close viewing distances.

Leyard and Planar www.planar.com Booth #1822

ROSE ELECTRONICS VIDEOSPLITTER HDMI HDBASET 1X4 Rose Electronics has released the VideoSplitter HDMI HDBaseT 1x4.

It distributes and extends 1 HDMI 2.0 source signal, along with IR and RS232, to 4 displays over Catx cable.

Transmission of 4K60 video signals

is supported up to 131' and 1080p video signals up to 197'. There is also 1 HDMI output to monitor locally or cascade with up to 4 additional splitters. Receivers are required near the displays, and they’re powered from the splitter using PoH. The product is suitable for professional video display, such as exhibition demonstrations, training seminars, meeting-room presentations, auditoriums, educational environments, digital signage, retail outlets and other locations. Features include HDCP compatibility, powerover-Catx cable, diagnostic LEDs, easy EDID dip switch setup, transparent audio transmission, display blanking and EDID management via serial control, and others.

Rose Electronics www.rose.com Booth #1116

TVONE CORIOMASTER ENHANCEMENTS tvONE has launched enhancements to the CORIOmaster (4RU), CORIOmaster mini (1RU) and CORIOmaster micro (0.5RU) videowall processors.

The enhancements include a secure communication suite with full REST API and multi-user control. Other improvements include an HDMI 4-port output module (CM-HDMI-SC-4OUT), audio support for the CORIOmaster and CORIOmaster mini for embedded audio, and a dedicated audio module (CM-AUD-2IN-4OUT). The HDMI 4-port output upgrades your C3-540 CORIOmaster to up to 56 outputs to create massive videowalls, projector edge blends and LED installations. The embedded audio support and audio module ensure the CORIOmaster is suitable when you need both video and audio in an installation. The IP streaming module now accepts both H.264 and H.265 (HEVC) for higher quality and increased bandwidth performance; a low-latency mode is included. tvONE www.tvone.com Booth #1118

NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT Compiled by Dan Ferrisi

ort are being introduced to our industry at Digital Signage Expo 2019 in Las Vegas NV. Product information received well as in future issues. (All product information was supplied by manufacturers and/or distributors.)

Chief’s FCASCA, FCAVCA

PEC’s TV Shield PRO Portrait Touch

Planar’s EPX Series

Hall Research’s U3CAT6 Rose Electronics’ VideoSplitter HDMI HDBaseT 1x4

Sharp’s PN-HB, PN-HM Series

tvONE’s CORIOmaster Enhancements

March 2019

Sound & Communications 69

DIGITAL SIGNAGE EXPO 2019 PEERLESS-AV

BRIGHTSIGN

ALL-IN-ONE PORTRAIT KIOSK

BSN.CLOUD

Peerless-AV has released the 2nd generation of its All-in-One Portrait Kiosk Powered by BrightSign (KIPICT2555).

Featuring a BrightSign XT1144 Expanded I/O Player, the kiosk is suitable for a variety of digital signage applications, including retail, corporate, hospitality, transportation, education and more. This newest iteration of the kiosk delivers full-HD 1080p60 single video decoding, HTML support and networked content playback, as well as an abundant set of features like interactivity via the GPIO port, remote snapshot, live text, media feeds and multi-zone. The kiosk’s sleek design offers the ruggedness needed for public use, a smaller footprint, and simple installation via micro SD card, USB or cable. The All-in-One Kiosk’s commercial LCD display offers 10 points of IR touch, allowing users to interact and engage with any digital content being shown.

Peerless-AV www.peerless-av.com Booth #2407

BrightSign’s BSN.cloud is a cloudmanagement platform that provides customers and partners with a trio of cloud-based solutions: control, management and content. The Control Cloud is a free subscription service for use with all connected BrightSign media players. The Management Cloud offers a fee-based, data-driven cloud service that delivers a complete set of digital signage network-management tools. Finally, the Content Cloud is a fee-based service that adds a media library and content feeds, presentation management, scheduling and contentdistribution tools. For CMS and digital signage solutions partners, BSN.cloud can be integrated at each level via BrightSign’s portfolio of APIs. BrightSign’s user interface into the BSN. cloud player management platform is the BrightAuthor:connected, which will be available in Q2/19. Other UIs will be available in the coming months from BrightSign’s CMS and channel partners.

BrightSign www.brightsign.biz Booth #2222

ATDEC ADBS-2X2-17MFB Atdec’s ADBS-2X2-17MFB 2x2 freestanding videowall accommodates up to a maximum load capacity of 440lb.

It’s suitable for freestanding videowall needs for wayfinding and information boards in airports, schools and hospitality. Each mounting bracket is 68.9" and supports up to 110lb. per bracket, with a maximum mounting height of 70". The freestanding videowall is an alternative for those areas that might not have the appropriate constructed wall to support. All Atdec products come with a standard 10-year warranty.

Atdec www.atdec.com Booth #2943

NAVORI QL MANAGER UPDATE Navori streamlines digital signage content management for businesses and organizations with a QL Manager update that allows roaming employees to publish snapshots, express messaging and other content on the network with ease. The app, part of Navori’s QL 2.1 software update, frees employees from the desktop as they attempt to keep content fresh. The app extends the potential pool of content contributors on the move by making it simpler to update content from iOS and Android devices. The software grants access to local users as they move through a facility with predefined control, and it reduces the number of steps required to review, manage and publish digital signage content. The result: Users

70 Sound & Communications March 2019

have control over the entire network as they move about, with network security peace of mind.

Navori www.navori.com Booth #2809

MAGENTA HDMI 2.0 PRODUCTS Experience lifelike color and higher 4K frame rates with Magenta’s family of HDMI 2.0 products at the tvONE booth.

Introductions include active optical cables, an ultra-slim auto-switcher, matrix switchers and ultra-compact DAs; all support video resolutions up to 4Kx2K@60Hz 4:4:4 HDR and provide 18Gbps of high bandwidth.

The MG-AOC-66x series of active optical cables provide a simple, robust solution for extending ultra-high resolutions over long distances. This reliability is also available in DisplayPort 1.4 (MG-AOC-88x), supporting resolutions up to 8K/60. Both variants are available in plenum and non-plenum versions. The 1T-SX-654 auto-switcher has 4 HDMI video inputs and 1 HDMI output. Standing 12mm tall, the 1T-SX654 provides multiple control options and Audio Return Channel (ARC).

For larger applications, the MX-65xx matrix series is available in 4x4 and 8x8 configurations. The MG-DA-61x series provides a high-performance solution for distributing HDMI signals in an ultra-compact form factor.

Magenta Research c/o tvONE www.tvone.com Booth #1118

ROSE ELECTRONICS CRYSTALVIEW DETACHABLE HDMI, DISPLAYPORT AOC Rose Electronics has released the CrystalView Detachable HDMI and DisplayPort active optical cables (AOC).

The CrystalView active optical cables with detachable heads allow you to pull them through a small conduit. To pull

them, remove the cable head and snap on the pulling sleeve, then pull with standard technique. The HDMI version ends are terminated with HDMI D connectors. They can be connected to standard HDMI D receptacles or they can be fitted with HDMI type A or DVI adapters. The DisplayPort version ends are terminated with mini-DP connectors. They can be connected to miniDP receptacles or they can be fitted to standard-size DisplayPort adapters.

The HDMI cable extends HDMI 2.0 video at 4K60 resolution with 10-bit HDR up to a distance of 330'. The DisplayPort cable extends DisplayPort 1.4 video at 8K30 resolution with 16-bit HDR up to a distance of 165'.

Rose Electronics www.rose.com Booth #1116

CHIEF FCS1U Chief has launched the FCS1U Cable Floor-to-Ceiling Flat Panel Mount to provide QSRs and retail with lowprofile options for digital signage. The FCS1U supports both portrait and landscape orientations in a single SKU, with the option to retrofit a second, back-to-back display with the PACFCB accessory. The mount supports large displays with a 130lb. weight capacity.

Post-installation pitch alignment keeps the display from tilting without having to over-tighten the cables. The cables accommodate up to 15' distance between floor and ceiling. A PACFCL accessory can connect the cables to channel strut for post-installation lateral shift or to line up multiple displays on a plane. It works well in areas that are usually hard to support with traditional mounts.

Chief www.legrandav.com/products/chief/ mounts/display/ceiling/fcs/fcs1u Booth #1312

NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Chief’s FCS1U

Rose Electronics’ CrystalView Detachable HDMI, DisplayPort AOC

Peerless-AV’s All-in-One Portrait Kiosk

Magenta’s HDMI 2.0 Products

Atdec’s ADBS-2X2-17MFB BrightSign’s BSN.cloud

March 2019

Sound & Communications 71

DIGITAL SIGNAGE EXPO 2019 VIDEOTEL VP90 Videotel’s VP90 4K/1080 industrialgrade Networked Digital Signage Media Player allows users to play content locally on a USB or SD card, or they can access the VP90 remotely to upload, update or change content.

To access the VP90, users can go to a simple URL to access the secure web server. No software license fee is required. Users can additionally update content from FTP or LAN. The VP90’s integrated scheduler allows users to display various content at different times of the day. Users can choose to access an array of various templates to create custom content, or they can upload or design their own from a blank slate. Users can add in an unlimited number of zones to include social media and weather, or they can point the content to play from a URL of their choice. The VP90 automatically powers on, plays, and loops audio, video, images or a mixture of files.

Videotel www.videoteldigital.com Booth #2244

SHARP WINDOWS COLLABORATION DISPLAY Sharp has partnered with Microsoft to release a new class of large-format, interactive displays. The Windows collaboration display from Sharp is a 4K ultra-HD 70" class (69.5" diagonal) display that helps improve collaboration and meeting effectiveness by taking advantage of familiar Microsoft Office 365 apps to simplify meetings, extend the desktop to room scale, and communicate with teams in-person and remotely. This display promotes collaboration with simplified connectivity by offering laptop smart switching and mobile device wireless casting connectivity, and by enabling real-time collaboration using touch, ink, a built-in 4K HD videoconference camera and a dual microphone array.

The device also includes a sensor hub

that connects to Microsoft Azure IoT for Smart Spaces, enabling facility managers to collect real-time room data to make real-time decisions.

This enables automatic detection, via built-in sensors, that captures room use, ambient lighting, temperature and other environmental data.

Sharp Electronics siica.sharpusa.com/professionaldisplays Booth #1207

DYNASCAN DI881LT2 DynaScan’s DI881LT2 is an 88" ultra-wide bar type professional LCD. The DI881LT2 is for special applications where height is limited, and it’s suitable for life-size digital mannequin content applications when installed in portrait orientation. Featuring ultra-HD resolution (3840x1080) and a brightness rating of 1,000 nits, the display produces a clearly viewable image in high-ambient-light environments. A local dimming backlight provides highcontrast picture quality and low power consumption. An integrated Androidbased media player with Wi-Fi offers users the ability to select from the varied array of media software solutions on the market or use DynaScan’s DSM365 application for local video playback, playlist creation and content scheduling.

DynaScan www.dynascandisplay.com Booth #2412

SONY TOUCH OVERLAY PANELS Sony has introduced Touch Overlay Panels (TOP) for 55", 65", 75" and 85" displays that operate with IR touch technology. Visitors can interact with the touch-enabled displays by finger or stylus. Up to 10 multi-touch points ensure accurate, responsive performance across the entire display area. The overlays’ tough anti-glare surface ensures high visibility, even in

72 Sound & Communications March 2019

sunny environments. The slim, easy-fit overlays create interactive multitouch screens, suitable for meeting rooms, interactive signage and informational kiosks. Powered by direct USB connection to a PC or server, the energyefficient touch overlay keeps running costs down (display is powered separately). Operation is guaranteed with compatible 55" (TSA-55PB), 65" (TSA-65PB) and 75" (TSA-75PB) Sony professional displays.

Sony pro.sony/ue_US/products/displayaccessories/touch-screen-overlays Booth #1607

HALL RESEARCH CUSB3-APXX Hall Research has made an addition to its Javelin series active cables: the CUSB3-APxx. The “xx” is the length.

Available in lengths of 49', 98' and 164', CUSB3-APxx cables support transparent extension of USB 3.1 Gen1 SuperSpeed at data rates of up to 5Gb/s. The cable is a lightweight hybrid of fiber and copper, and it’s plenum rated to ensure compliance with modern building codes. The small cable ends can be easily pulled through most conduit, and no additional power is required, making the CUSB3-APxx a true plug-and-play solution. CUSB3APxx cables are compatible with virtually all USB 3.0 and 3.1 Gen1 devices, and it’s a good solution for extending 4K videoconferencing cameras, video capture, docking stations and other high-speed data communication.

Hall Research www.hallresearch.com Booth #3215

SIGNAGELIVE WORKPLACE COMMUNICATIONS SOLUTION Signagelive’s Workplace Communications solution is a way to engage and inform employees. It can be used for multiple locations (e.g., offices, factories, sales departments,

reception, staff canteens) and across time zones and languages to share company data, messages and KPIs. Effective workplace communications have been proven to be tied to increasing employee engagement and, as a result, increased productivity and company revenue. Signagelive’s cloud-based software platform can be used throughout customers’ businesses, from customer-facing retail digital signage and break-room communications, to visualizing company data on sales floors, showing KPIs in manufacturing and innovative reception areas. Many of Signagelive’s API triggers, including emergency messaging and remote control, as well as many new apps and interactive room booking, will be included.

Signagelive www.signagelive.com Booth #2418

D3 NVIEW HDR D3’s NView HDR is the company’s latest advance in HDR LED technology. With its ultra-fine pixel pitch, accelerated refresh rates and 48-bit color palette, it delivers vivid video.

Many of its features are meant to impress techs and execs. The new module is lighter, thinner, frontserviceable and wall-mountable for easy ADA compliance. That well suits existing locations, as well as new construction. Its EnergyLock power system not only saves on energy bills, but also reduces heat load and lowers ventilation requirements. For simple installation and a seamless appearance (front and back), the NView HDR features out-of-view connections inside a precision-cast chassis, all on an easy-mount frame system. For in-the-action locations, the ArmorTouch option provides a sheer display coating for physical protection.

D3 LED www.d3led.com Booth #1226

NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT DynaScan’s DI881LT2

Sharp’s Windows Collaboration Display

Videotel’s VP90

D3’s NView HDR

Signagelive’s Workplace Communications Solution

Hall Research’s CUSB3-APxx Sony’s Touch Overlay Panels

March 2019

Sound & Communications 73

NEWS Compiled by Amanda Mullen

Beijing InfoComm China Rescheduled For July

Extron Surpasses $13 Million In Classroom AV Grants Extron has announced the continuation of its Classroom Technology Grant Programs for the 12th year in a row. Through the program, Extron has awarded more than $13 million of PlenumVault, PoleVault, WallVault, VoiceLift, ShareLink and GlobalViewer Enterprise systems to US school districts. More than 1,600 classrooms have received instructional technology that enables district technology leaders, administrators and instructors to evaluate and define AV system standards for their schools.

“Our classroom AV systems are designed specifically to meet the needs of K-12 classrooms,” Anthony Cortes, Director of Sales and Marketing, Education Classroom Systems for Extron, said.

“With our grant programs, schools can introduce students and educators to technology that will boost students’ interest and achievement in the classroom, as well as prepare them for the future.”

Extron offers several programs for qualifying institutions. The Classroom AV Grant awards complete classroom AV switching and control systems. The VoiceLift Microphone Grant allows classrooms to experience the benefits of voice amplification. The ShareLink Grant enables schools to test wireless collaboration and presentation capabilities. The GlobalViewer Enterprise Grant demonstrates the benefits of managing, monitoring and controlling AV devices over the network.

The principal goal of the Extron grant program is to provide increased visibility and expanded access to AV technology by supplying selected pilot classrooms with advanced audio and video solutions.

InfoCommAsia, the organizer of Beijing InfoComm China, has announced that this year’s show, to be held at the China National Convention Center (CNCC), has been rescheduled to take place from July 17 to 19. Citing force majeure, venue provider CNCC is unable to host the annual show at its premises during the usual mid-April period. Despite this unforeseen development, InfoCommAsia has begun to address the logistical challenges.

“We will be rolling out an extensive marketing and promotional campaign to reach out to preregistered visitors, as well as the broader audience across industries, to drive top-of-mind awareness and strengthen interest in the show,” Richard Tan, Executive Director of InfoCommAsia, said. “We would like to take this opportunity to thank our exhibitors for their trust and support upon receiving news of the change of dates. Their loyalty is an encouragement to the team as we work on producing yet another successful show this July and in the years to come.”

“This is an unprecedented challenge that we are facing since staging the first InfoComm China more than 10 years ago,” Tan continued. “We are deeply sorry about this disruption, and we’re working closely with our exhibitors and partners to ease any issues they encounter. We are heartened by their understanding and support during this transition. Together with our partners and stakeholders, we will rise above the challenge to deliver another superb show, featuring the best commercial AV and integrated-experience technologies for forward-thinking AV and IT professionals, as well as business end users in various vertical markets.”

Adamson Systems Engineering Joins The Avnu Alliance The Avnu Alliance has added Adamson Systems Engineering as a member of its commercial AV segment, directly supporting the segment’s Milan initiative. Milan is a standards-based, userdriven, deterministic network protocol based on audio video bridging (AVB) for professional media, assuring that devices will work together with heightened reliability and functionality.

At this year’s NAMM Show, Adamson also announced the release of its first AVB product—the CS7p point-source enclosure. The CS7p is the first entry in a new generation of loudspeakers from the company. Beginning with the CS7p, the CS-Series family of products will feature onboard Class-D amplification, DSP and Milan-ready AVB network endpoints.

“Adamson is excited to be among the first Avnu members to develop products that are Milanready,” Morten Lave, Network Architect for Adamson Systems Engineering, said. “We strongly support the mission of the Avnu Alliance and the Milan protocol. The organization’s commitment to developing solutions that support network interoperability and directly address marketrequired needs are in line with the work we are also trying to achieve here at Adamson in creating networked audio products that are fully redundant and easily manageable. We believe that Adamson and Avnu will be successful collaborative partners for our market.”

74 Sound & Communications March 2019

Be sure to check out our 22nd Annual Worship Center AV Survey report, tipped into this issue!

NEWS Elite Screens Celebrates 15th Anniversary

Elite Screens, a US-based manufacturer of projection screens, is currently celebrating its 15th anniversary. The company was founded by professionals from the video projector industry in 2004, during a time when projector competition was enhancing quality at an increasingly competitive price.

Elite Screens’ mission is to make cinemaquality projection screens accessible at any price level, without sacrificing quality. The company thanked its supporters in a press release that marked the 15th-anniversary milestone.

TMP-Pro Named US Distributor Of Fusion Research Products TMP-Pro, the professional audio, video and lighting distribution division of The Music People, has been named the first US distributor of Fusion Research products. The company has immediately begun shipping Fusion Research products. Fusion Research provides high-resolution music servers that stream commercially licensed music for use in any public space. The company’s FR-SOLO features a single analog output, whereas the FR-DUET boasts dual analog outputs. Both servers feature a high-resolution DAC, and they’re easy to control via mobile devices, computers, or automated systems such as Crestron or Control4. Fusion music servers are created to pair with many lines of loudspeakers, including Apart Audio, which is another TMP-Pro-distributed brand.

“TMP-Pro is excited to expand its line card with Fusion Research to offer streaming hardware—a segment of the market we did not reach until now,” Jim Mingo, Director of Pro Audio Business Development at TMPPro, said. “These best-in-class music servers will provide AV installers with a new, reliable solution when looking to install streaming music in a retail store, restaurant or other public space.”

Industry Mourns ETC’s Fred Foster Fred Foster, Co-Founder and CEO of ETC, died on February 8 at the age of 61.

Foster was considered a visionary, an innovator and a role model by many professionals in the industry.

ETC has attributed its culture of family, support and encouragement to Foster and his vision of a creating a people-focused environment. Foster was often recognized for his ability to bring people together and rally them around a goal or a vision. Whether it was a new product technology, a trade show booth design or an employee meeting space, he was always creating, always making and always giving.

Foster is credited with countless industry contributions, which range from product innovations to student-mentorship programs. He has been recognized repeatedly, by a number of organizations, for his philanthropy.

Foster announced his cancer diagnosis in summer 2015, and he went through extensive treatment to prolong his life. Those who knew him best would confirm he was a nature lover, and he enjoyed activities such as pond yachting and downhill skiing. Foster died surrounded by family and loved ones. Both of his children—daughter Kate Foster and son James Foster—as well as his wife, Susan Foster, are employed at ETC.

Higher-Education Institutions Invest In Commercial AV Nearly 40 percent of students report that commercial AV technologies increase their engagement in the classroom, according to AVIXA’s new Market Opportunity Analysis Report (MOAR) focused on higher education. To create vibrant learning environments, colleges and universities are making large investments in AV technologies. The new AVIXA report investigates the opportunities and challenges for commercial AV providers that work in higher education.

“Education has long been a key market for commercial AV providers, and for good reason,” Sean Wargo, Senior Director of Market Intelligence, AVIXA, said. “In 2018, education generated $13.8 billion in commercial AV revenue globally, and it’s expected to grow at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 5.2 percent through 2023, when it will reach $18.1 billion, according to our Industry Outlook and Trend Analysis (IOTA) report. Today’s college students are true digital natives with high expectations for technology, and education institutions are tasked with delivering on those demands.”

MOAR: Higher Education reports on students’ experiences with technology in the classroom. The report also explores the feedback of those who purchase commercial AV solutions at higher-education institutions, as well as comments from commercial AV integrators who work in the market.

Colleges and universities are investing in technology, in part, so as better to facilitate recruitment. Some 86 percent of higher-education institutions indicate they are planning to make capital improvements to their classrooms or educational workspaces over the next two years, with 36 percent reporting significant increases in spending as compared to the prior year. In terms of total capital expenditure budget amounts, the average outlay planned for the current year is more than $766,000. Some 79 percent of decision-maker respondents indicate more than 10 percent of the overall project budget is allocated specifically to upgrade or install AV technologies or solutions in classrooms or workspaces.

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NEWS Anchor Audio Unveils New Brand Identity Anchor Audio has unveiled a new brand identity for the first time in more than 40 years. The new identity is intended to reflect the evolution of the organization, its products and the commercial AV industry as a whole. The move is part of an extensive branding initiative that the organization believes will carry it forward to better serve its channel partners and customers.

The debut of Anchor Audio’s new brand identity was launched in conjunction with the release of its new product line, the Series 2. As part of developing its renewed identity, the company developed a new tagline: “Superior Audio with Unmatched Simplicity and Reliability.” Other features of the rebranding initiative include a redesigned website, an updated company logo, graphic communications and a new brand voice across platforms.

The Anchor Audio branding initiative was the result of market research, data analysis and customer feedback. According to Bethany Dineen, Director of Marketing at Anchor Audio, “Not only did we want an overall updated ‘look,’ but we also wanted our personality as a company to be portrayed in our brand: transparent, honest, and, above all, simple and reliable. Our partners and customers will not only notice a complete update and easy-to-navigate redesign of our website, but also find a consistent brand voice across all of our communications that captures the energetic and authentic culture of our company.”

CCS Presentation Systems Expands With Florida Office CCS Presentation Systems is expanding its presence with the addition of a new office in Tallahassee FL. The new office is part of the CCS Southeast division, headquartered in Jacksonville FL, with additional offices in Orlando FL, Miami FL, Knoxville TN and Atlanta GA. CCS Presentation Systems currently has more than 300 employees, sales offices in 15 states and annual revenue that exceeds $130 million.

Chris de Treville will lead the Tallahassee office, focusing on coordinating commercial growth and managing the western Florida and south Georgia markets. According to John Doster, CEO of CCS Southeast, “We are very excited to have Chris joining our team.

Chris brings a tremendous amount of experience, and his passion Chris de Treville for serving customers is well known in our industry.”

Formerly, de Treville served as an Account Manager at AVI-SPL. A graduate of Florida State University, he has more than 23 years’ experience in commercial AV, along with more than 31 years working within the low-voltage and commercial AV verticals.

RCI Custom Products Earns ISO 9001:2015 Certification RCI Custom Products has received ISO 9001:2015 certification from Intertek, an assurance, inspection, product-testing and certification company headquartered in London, UK. Certification was provided on December 12. RCI has provided connectivity products for the commercial AV, broadcast and IT segments for more than 30 years, and it owns the PanelBuilder SE panel-design application.

“RCI has been extremely fortunate to have a group of dedicated employees who saw certification as an opportunity to improve operational efficiency and produce better custom products,” Doug Macuch, President and Founder of RCI Custom Products, said. “Our ultimate objective is to see that the effort translates into improved global competitiveness for RCI.” “It has been a goal of ours to have our quality-management system recognized by an international authority, and Intertek has done that…,” Macuch added. “That said, certification is simply recognition of the culture we have worked so hard to create here at RCI. The effort put forth by the entire RCI team on an everyday basis is what this really represents. As anyone who creates custom work can tell you, it isn’t as easy as it might look.”

CALENDAR

QSC, Audinate Announce Technology-Development Partnership QSC and Audinate have announced a partnership to develop cross-platform technology that will promote integrations between QSC solutions and Audinate-licensed products. The first round of co-developed solutions is scheduled for availability later this year.

“QSC is committed to bridging the gap between disparate AV systems, peripherals and protocols by providing an agnostic, open-standard approach to audio, video and control,” Trent Wagner, Audio Product Manager, QSC, said. “By partnering directly with industry-leading manufacturers like Audinate, we are able to pursue unique solutions that will not only advance the capabilities of the QSC portfolio, but also push the entire industry toward providing more native interconnectivity options. Audinate has already been a tremendous partner for the Q-SYS ecosystem, and we look forward to deepening our relationship over the coming months and years.”

“Audinate and QSC have both been instrumental to the growth of AV networking over the last decade,” Joshua Rush, SVP, Marketing and Products for Audinate, added. “We look forward to expanding our partnership by bringing the benefits of Dante to even more of the QSC product portfolio and customer base in exciting new ways.”

76 Sound & Communications March 2019

March 146th AES Convention Mar. 20–23 Dublin, Ireland AES www.aes.org/events/146 Digital Signage Expo (DSE) 2019 Mar. 26–29 Las Vegas NV Exponation www.digitalsignageexpo.net April Prolight + Sound Apr. 2–5 Frankfurt, Germany Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH pls.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/ en.html

NEWS Electrosonic Achieves AV Provider Of Excellence Distinction Electrosonic Group has qualified on a global basis as an AVIXA AV Provider of Excellence (APEx). AVIXA APEx is a marketing recognition program for integration companies and AV design consulting firms that are dedicated to upholding industry excellence by providing quality service to customers.

The APEx designation is recognized as a mark of distinction for companies in the AV marketplace. Customers of APEx companies are assured of the AV provider’s commitment to ongoing training, customer service and dedication. The APEx program recognizes companies based on the number of employees who hold key industry qualifications, as well as receiving positive responses to an independent customer survey.

For a company to qualify, 15 percent of its employees must have attained AVIXA’s CTS certifications, including the CTS for general expertise in AV, the CTS-D for specialization in AV design and the CTS-I for specialization in AV installation. APEx providers must also prove that they meet or exceed the requirements within two ANSI/InfoComm standards: the Standard Guide for Audiovisual Systems Design and Coordination Processes and the AV System Performance Verification Standard.

“Last summer, Electrosonic EMEA earned the APEx designation, and, now that the US has completed the qualification process, we’re delighted to announce that Electrosonic has achieved global certification,” Jon Hancock, CEO of Electrosonic Group, said. “We regard the APEx designation as a measure of Electrosonic’s commitment to our clients, the AV industry, and our employee learning and development programs. We’re proud of our reputation for innovation, creativity and precision engineering, as well as our leadership role in the AV industry.”

NAB Show Apr. 6–11 Las Vegas NV NAB www.nabshow.com May ASA’s 177th Meeting May 13–17 Louisville KY ASA www.acousticalsociety.org

Video Mount Products Celebrates 25th Anniversary Video Mount Products (VMP), a provider of mounting solutions for the commercial AV market, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. According to Keith Fulmer, President of VMP, “It’s amazing to think of all the technologies that have come and gone, and the up and down economies since 1994. Twenty-five years ago, when big and boxy tube televisions were all the rage, VMP quickly became a favorite for mounting these bulky CRTs onto walls and from the ceilings of bars, restaurants, gyms and other commercial venues. Since then, VMP has evolved, along with an ever-expanding AV industry, into a leading supplier of flat-panel mounting solutions from installations in educational, institutional and religious applications to lodging, sports venues, residential, healthcare and restaurants.”

VMP began as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) project to provide mounts for a handful of Maryland electronic distributors whose customers were handling multiple TV installations in small venues. The line began with a product offering of just six items; now, it has evolved to offer nearly 200 SKUs to suit installation professionals across every facet of the AV, communications and security industries.

“While we began strictly offering TV mounts for CRTs, we now provide an extensive line that includes mounts for flatpanels and projectors, as well as equipment racks and cabinets for data and AV installs,” Fulmer added. “Additionally, we cater to the needs of our wireless and broadband customers with an array of satellite and antenna mounting products.”

(L-R): Renkus-Heinz’s CTO, Ralph Heinz; Renkus-Heinz’s Eastern Regional Sales Manager, Joe Fustolo; and McFadden Sales Representatives Gary Dunaway, Andy Yost, Ryan Schmidt, Andy Kerr and Anthony Barbuto.

Renkus-Heinz Announces Rep Awards At NAMM 2019 At this year’s NAMM Show, Renkus-Heinz recognized its leading manufacturer’s representatives for top sales and outstanding achievements. Frequency Sales of Des Plaines IL received the award for Rep of the Year. The company covers northern Illinois and Wisconsin for RenkusHeinz. Outstanding Achievement Awards were presented to San Antonio TX-based Native Media and McFadden Sales of Westerville OH. Native Media’s territory includes Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. McFadden Sales covers Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.

“We’ve represented Renkus-Heinz for many years, and it’s been a very rewarding relationship for us all,” Andy Yost of McFadden Sales said. “Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers have been behind many of our most successful projects, and that means happy customers.”

March 2019

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PEOPLE Compiled by Amanda Mullen

K. Morrison

P. Tapper

D. Taylor

D. Chiappini

R. Archibald

N. Wallaszkovits

K. McManus

B. Reksten

G. Wylie

E. Grandmougin

B. Gleason

H. Kobayashi

D. Bennett

V. Gilbert

K. Perez

S. Milsk

T. Sawyer

P. Blue

A. Teyssier

P. Murphy, Jr.

Utelogy appointed Kevin Morrison as CEO…NUGEN Audio named Dr. Paul Tapper as CEO…Listen Technologies selected Doug Taylor as CPO…Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) appointed David Chiappini as Chair of its AIMS Pro AV Working Group…Clear-Com appointed Rachel Archibald as Director of Marketing…The Audio Engineering Society appointed Nadja Wallaszkovits as President…Avid named Kathy-Anne McManus as SVP of Global Customer Solutions and Services…VITEC welcomed Bryan Reksten as VP of Marketing…Draper named Grant Wylie as Director of Product Management–AV Structures and Solutions…Active Audio appointed Eric Grandmougin as Marketing and Customer Support Director…PrimeTime Lighting appointed Brian 78 Sound & Communications March 2019

Gleason as National Sales Director…Leyard and Planar welcomed Hiroshi Kobayashi as Regional Account Manager…Yamaha Professional Audio appointed Daniel Bennett as District Manager for NEXO Products…Allen & Heath welcomed Val Gilbert as Technical Marketing Manager…Signagelive appointed Keila Perez as Sales Development Representative for Americas…Speco Technologies has expanded its National Accounts Group with Steve Milsk…VUE welcomed Tony Sawyer as Technical Support Specialist, APAC…Modulo Pi appointed Phil Blue as International Business Developer, and Amandine Teyssier as Marketing and Communications Manager…Broadcast Pix hired Patrick Murphy, Jr., as Inside Sales Associate….

PRODUCTS Compiled by Amanda Mullen

All product information supplied by manufacturers and/or distributors.

Electro-Voice’s UHF Wireless System

Electro-Voice’s RE3 is a UHF wireless system that offers sound quality, wireless flexibility and ease of use in alignment with the latest RF regulations.

RE3 receivers and transmitters are available in 10 prepackaged sets, configured to cover a range of performance and presentation applications. Sets contain a ½RU diversity receiver with antennas, universal power supply, rackmount kit, transmitter, batteries and an input device. Additionally, the RE3 portfolio contains a comprehensive assortment of accessories to aid in the creation of large, multi-channel systems.

The RE3 handheld combines robust aluminum build with a sleek profile. 5 handheld system sets are available with a choice of interchangeable mic capsules.

The compact RE3 bodypack features cast magnesium construction for maximum durability. 5 bodypack system sets are available for instrument and lavalier/ headworn mic applications.

Electro-Voice www.electrovoice.com

L-Acoustics’ Coaxial Speaker

L-Acoustics’ X4i is a powerful, yet unobtrusive and highly weatherized, coaxial speaker for installation applications. X4i, the smallest speaker the company has ever manufactured, is lightweight and measures 3.9" deep. Dimensioned for ease of integration into conventional construction materials, X4i is suited to fill applications in performing arts centers or houses of worship, matching the sonic signature of main L-Acoustics systems such as ARCS and Kiva. X4i can be hidden in walls, stair risers, stage lips, pit rails, under balconies or any other tight spot. The enclosure can additionally provide vocal reinforcement in settings such as conference rooms, museums and exhibits, and hospitality venues. Combined with Syva Sub, X4i constitutes a solution for indoor or outdoor background music in restaurants, bars, hotels and retail locations. The weatherresistant X4i boasts an IP55 rating, and it becomes watertight with a rear sealing plate.

L-Acoustics www.l-acoustics.com

QSC’s Network Amps

Barix’s Linux-Based Devices

QSC has introduced its CX-Q Series Network Amps for the Q-SYS Ecosystem. The CX-Q Series amps feature 4- and 8-channel models that combine the QSC amp design with the native network transport, control and monitoring capabilities of the Q-SYS Ecosystem.

As a native peripheral of the Q-SYS ecosystem, the CX-Q Series network amps can take advantage of network routing capabilities as well as advanced processing, control, monitoring and speaker output load.

These amps also assist Q-SYS in deploying QSC technologies like Intrinsic Correction. CX-Q Series network amps utilize Class-D hybrid power-train design built upon the PL380 PowerLight amp platform. They also feature 2 QSC amp solutions: FlexAmp and FAST (Flexible Summing Amplifier Technology).

QSC www.qsc.com

Barix has introduced a series of Linux-based I/O, IoT sensor and interface controllers in its Barionet product line. The new devices combine the power and flexibility of the programmable Barionet platform with the simplicity of Lua programming and a cloudbased code deployment solution.

Although Barix’s earlier adoption of Linux offers customization depth for experienced Linux programmers, Barix’s latest models support the lightweight, embeddable Lua scripting language, simplifying customization of the devices’ behavior. Added to this is Barix’s cloud-based FLEXA service, which is intended to simplify the deployment of custom Lua scripts to multiple Barionet units.

Eliminating the need to manually load firmware onto each individual device, FLEXA distributes the code to specified units over the internet.

Barix www.barix.com

Barix’s Barionet 1100

L-Acoustics’ X4i

Electro-Voice’s RE3

QSC’s CX-Q Series March 2019

Sound & Communications 79

PRODUCTS Extron’s Seamless Switcher

Extron’s ISS 608 is an 8-input seamless switcher for the dynamic presentation and scaling of DisplayPort and HDMI content at resolutions up to 4K/60 at 4:4:4 at a maximum data rate of 18Gb/s. Advanced, presentationenhancing features include Extron Vector 4K scaling technology and multiple transition effects, as well as logo insertion, video keying and PIP to complement primary content. An independent Preview output facilitates confident delivery of content. For streamlined integration, the switcher provides audio management and multiple control options, including a front panel, RS232 and Ethernet. Matrix Mode adds automatic, seamless transitions to any matrix switcher with HDMI outputs. The features and capabilities of the ISS 608 provide a seamless switching solution for presentation environments and live events.

Extron www.extron.com

Biamp’s Rackmounted Amps

Biamp introduced its rackmounted amps with 100% asymmetric power distribution. Biamp’s Tesira amps allow system designers and integrators to distribute virtually any amount of available power, and they support 802.1X authentication. Both models—the Tesira 1200.1 and Tesira 1200.2—employ media and control on a single port. Biamp’s power distribution architecture allows designers and integrators to distribute 1 to 100 percent of available power to any channel. Additionally, the amps support both selectable impedance (4Ω, 8Ω, 70V or 100V) and patented delay equalization per channel, delivering maximum design flexibility. To streamline installations, both models include an audible locate feature on the front panel.

Biamp www.biamp.com

Atlona’s Distribution Amps

Atlona’s 4K/ultra-HD-compatible AT-UHD-CAT-2 joins its lineup of HDMI-to-HDBaseT distribution amps. The 2-output AT-UHDCAT-2 brings all of the integration features of the company’s larger UHD-CAT Series to smaller AV distribution applications and has been built for integrators seeking the same feature set of its 4- and 8-output UHD-CAT distribution amps for smaller-scale AV applications. The UHD-CAT-2 features 1 HDMI input, 1 HDMI passthrough output, and 2 HDBaseT outputs for distributing 1080p content up to 230' or 4K/ultra-HD material up to 130' over category cable. Each HDBaseT output delivers video, audio, remote PoE receiver power and control signals—including RS232 and IR, plus CEC for automatic display control—over a single cable, simplifying installation while minimizing cable runs between AV sources, control systems and displays.

Atlona www.atlona.com

ClearOne’s Beamforming Mic Array

ClearOne launched its Ceiling Tile Beamforming Microphone Array (the BMA CT). The BMA CT features built-in acoustic echo cancellation, noise cancellation and beam selection, attributes that eliminate the need for perbeam processing in a DSP mixer.

The BMA CT allows for multi-array setups that can utilize a single low channel count DSP mixer. The array’s built-in power amp also allows each array to drive two 10W, 8-ohm speakers, and it features ClearOne’s adaptive steering technology. This provides room coverage while eliminating the need to adjust individual beams.

Integrators can daisy-chain ceiling tiles via ClearOne’s P-Link for larger conference setups. P-Link also allows integrators to daisychain additional peripherals such as wireless mics, USB expanders and GPIO expanders.

ClearOne www.clearone.com

Biamp’s Tesira Amp

Atlona’s AT-UHD-CAT-2

ClearOne’s BMA CT 80 Sound & Communications March 2019

Extron’s ISS 608

PRODUCTS Adder Technology’s Dual-Head 4K IP KVM Matrix

Adder Technology’s ADDERLink INFINITY 4000 Series (ALIF4000) is a dual-head 4K IP KVM matrix over a single fiber. Full compatibility with the existing INFINITY range allows the ALIF4000 to be phased into an existing network without disruption, downtime or the need to rip and replace. The ALIF4000 delivers pixel-perfect images, audio and USB to single or dual 4K screens over a single fiber link. At the same time, it supports mixed 1Gb and 10Gb networks. The ALIF4000 allows organizations to integrate 4K content into their everyday work, simplifying the adoption of 4K IP KVM by offering 4K, USB and audio all through a single fiber connection.

Adder Technology www.adder.com

Matrox’s IP KVM Extenders

Advancing KVM-over-IP technology, Matrox Extio 3 IP KVM extenders are capable of providing 4Kp60 4:4:4 or quad 1080p60 4:4:4 performance at low bitrates over a standard gigabit Ethernet network—at only 5% of the bandwidth required by most other products in the market today. Extio 3 IP KVM extenders work with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) network switches, enabling the design of a scalable and cost-effective KVM matrix over IP to securely route any system to any remote user location on the network.

Matrox www.matrox.com

Adder Technology’s ALIF4000

Shure’s Lobar Mini-Shotgun Mic

Shure’s R189 lobar mini-shotgun mic cartridge features a narrow, highly directional pickup pattern that rejects unwanted ambient noise and helps prevent feedback from sound amplification systems present in the room. With its slim dimensions and subtle design, the R189 seamlessly integrates with goosenecks on a table or lectern.

The R189 design is customized for easy setup and use. It ensures that users can easily customize their Microflex installations. The new MX405/MS gooseneck and MXC406/MS gooseneck will now offer the mini-shotgun mic as part of the larger Microflex portfolio.

Customers may also purchase a standalone cartridge (R189B) to exchange with existing products where tighter pickup is desired.

Shure www.shure.com

Digital Projection’s Multi-View 3D Projector

Digital Projection’s INSIGHT 4K HFR 360 Multi-View 3D projector can accommodate several viewers with its ultra-fast frame rates, each being individually tracked and having a view of the image that remains appropriate to their changing position.

This allows the users to see and interact with each other in a collaborative manner. The INSIGHT 4K HFR 360 delivers 360fps at native 4K resolution, enabling content creators to serve 3 independent, high-resolution 3D views with just 1 projector, or up to 6 views with the addition of a second.

Digital Projection www.digitalprojection.com

Digital Projection’s INSIGHT 4K HFR 360

Matrox’s Extio 3

Shure’s R189

March 2019

Sound & Communications 81

MEDIA

The latest literature, whitepapers, new or updated websites, course materials, webinars, training videos, podcasts, online resources and more.

If you can read it, watch it or listen to it, you’ll find it here! Send details, with photos, if available, to dferrisi@testa.com.

Compiled by Amanda Mullen

Premier Mounts’ Vlog Series

The SDVoE Alliance’s Blog

The SDVoE Alliance has launched a blog, which will feature posts from professionals in the commercial AV industry discussing how moving AV distribution to IP offers the ability to create new architectures and user experiences. Designers, integrators and end users have been excited to share stories of their experience embracing the more open and standardized approach to signal management offered by SDVoE. Now, they will have a regular source of news and information to help them as they replace dedicated matrix switchers and proprietary AV-over-IP with SDVoE network designs.

SDVoE Alliance www.sdvoe.org

SOFTWARE

Premier Mounts has debuted “The Peak,” a video blog (vlog) series that tackles relevant topics and provides an active platform for the AV community. “The Peak,” according to the company, is the first vlog produced solely for the AV industry. The goal of the vlog is to put a fresh spin on the latest topics, projects and industry trade shows for professionals who work in the AV industry worldwide. It will also showcase some of the projects that the Premier Mounts team has undertaken, with video documentation as they occur. This project combines active discussion, video segments and trending topics on a platform created for entertainment.

Premier Mounts will share new content every other week.

Premier Mounts www.premiermounts.com

Information about the latest software releases, apps, online tools, and software and firmware updates.

Send details, with supporting graphic, if available, to dferrisi@testa.com.

Compiled by Amanda Mullen

Yamaha’s Firmware Update

Yamaha has released v3 firmware for the Yamaha RIVAGE PM Series Digital Audio Systems. The upgrade will offer users a more flexible operation, as well as faster setup and control. A dynamic noise suppressor, developed by Dr. K and his K’s Lab team at Yamaha Japan, is included in the v3 firmware. The DaNSe plug-in analyzes noisefrequency characteristics and employs a LEARN function to achieve noise suppression automatically, without the need for complex setup or programming by the user. The ability to route MIX bus and MATRIX signals back to the input channels enhances routing flexibility, making parallel compression and multi-layer mixes using stem mixes possible for more detailed mixing and sound-shaping capability. Plugin settings can now be included in input and output channel copy-and-paste operations, and 8 banks are available for storing frequently used global paste setups.

Yamaha www.yamahaproaudio.com 82 Sound & Communications March 2019

Meyer Sound’s Test Signal

Meyer Sound has introduced M-Noise, a test signal that promotes standardized measurement of a loudspeaker system’s maximum linear output. A mathematically derived test signal that emulates the dynamic characteristics of music, M-Noise enables more accurate measurement of a speaker system’s linear peak SPL in any application that requires reproduction of musical content. The mathematical formula for generating M-Noise was derived following extensive spectral analysis of a wide variety of music program material. In particular, the analysis measured the varying crest factors in music and how those measurements compared to pink noise. (Crest factor is the difference between the average and instantaneous peak levels of a signal.) The crest factors of music and pink noise are similar at frequencies below 500Hz, but music exhibits a steadily rising crest factor at higher frequencies.

Meyer Sound www.meyersound.com

THE CENTERSTAGE AN ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO SOUND & COMMUNICATIONS

D.A.S. Audio Quantum Series, Featuring Outstanding Speech Intelligibility The Quantum systems are designed for fixed venue installations and offer outstanding speech intelligibility and configurable frequency response, suitable for spaces with complex acoustic conditions and immersive experiences. The enclosures of the Quantum series are made from extruded aluminum which offers exceptional robustness. Ideal as the main PA in reverberant spaces such as houses of worship, museums, restaurants, and conference centers. Available in all RAL colors with a host of hardware options for discretely blending in with the aesthetic of the space or boldly making an artistic statement.

WEB ADDRESS: www.dasaudio.com/ en/cp/quantum-se ries-en E-MAIL: infousa@ dasaudio.com

SYNNEX LG 55SVH7E: World’s Narrowest 0.44mm Even Bezel Video Wall LG introduces its first under 1 mm gap video wall with 0.44mm even bezel. Instead of contrasting the reduced bezel size with previous bezels, LG’s 55SVH7E highlights the similarity of its display with the bezel-less ‘original’ picture. Providing the perfection of an authentic nearly-seamless view, it targets markets which traditional video walls have not been able to access. The razor-thin bezel makes content look like the actual original image by depicting a subject perfectly true to form, without any distortions. Seamlessly assembled to create a large video wall, the 55SVH7E will provide an even more immersive experience to viewers. What’s more, because of IPS panel technology, the viewing angle of LG’s 55SVH7E allows it to display vivid colors throughout the screen without distortion from a wider angle.

WEB ADDRESS: www.synnexcorp.com/us/visualsolv E-MAIL: visualsolv@synnex.com

Extron Electronics SB 33 A: The Industry’s First Adjustable Width Sound Bar The SB 33 A, the industry’s first Adjustable Width Sound Bar, is a flexible solution for enhancing the audio experience in collaboration spaces. Featuring an adjustable-width design, our new sound bar can be customized to precisely match the width of the display, offering a high performance solution that looks great in any space. The SB 33 A accommodates most USB webcams, while options are available to mount a PTZ camera or have no camera at all. With an ENERGY STAR® qualified amplifier and carefully optimized drivers, the SB 33 A is well suited for small to medium size spaces that require exceptional speech intelligibility and high quality reproduction of program audio. A variety of mounting and camera options are available, providing an adaptable audio solution for today’s collaboration spaces.

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Radio Active Designs UV-1G VHF Band Wireless Intercom System Radio Active Designs’ UV-1G wireless intercom system features body packs that operate in the VHF band, freeing up valuable space for wireless systems that require limited UHF bandwidth. The spectrally efficient system offers seamless roaming for 600 meters with body packs that provide loud and clear audio even at the extreme end of the range. Scene Change feature allows each pack to have up to 40 talk paths and communicate with 20 wired comm channels. Base Linking affords matrix like functionality with up to 18 inputs/24 outputs and comprehensive audio routing to/from packs. Users can easily change belt pack parameters including radio frequencies, button assignment, talk paths, and audio channel via software with intuitive UI. WEB ADDRESS: www.radioactiverf.com

March 2019

Sound & Communications 83

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

AVIXA POV: NEW MARKETS: SEEK AND YOU SHALL FIND: IT’S TIME TO DIVERSIFY

(continued from page 30) get started, I’d like managers from integrators and consultancies to write to me and let me know their position on employees working remotely.

Are you doing it? Why or why not? I will also reach out proactively to some.

Most important, however, is you—the average reader.

What have you experienced?

Have any of you been turned down when requesting to work remotely? How did it turn out?

Conversely, if you’re currently working remotely, share your experiences doing so, as well as how the situation arose. Email me at dkleeger@testa.com.

In the coming months, I will offer a follow-up article about this topic, including any insights I receive about how to sway management so that our industr y starts to practice what it preaches. I think we’ll all be better off for it!

(continued from page 32) of the equation, with operating budgets contributing much more. That is where higher education closes the gap to some extent, with ongoing support of technology being a common budgetar y item.

What is perhaps more interesting than the level of planned spending, however, is the question of what types of technologies the end-user community plans to invest in (or not invest in) over the coming year. One might expect investments in newer technologies, such as voiceassisted control capabilities, to be on the rise across the verticals; that isn’t necessarily the case, though. In fact, in all six markets, voice control was more likely to be cited as an area of less spending. Rather than indicating a complete rejection of that technology, however, the responses might

simply reflect the experimental nature of first-wave adoption. Hospitality is a good example of a market that is dipping its toe into voice control. Hotels have started to add voice-assisted devices in a small subset of rooms to see how it goes, before deciding to invest further. No surprise there. Enterprise buyers typically want to make sure technology can reliably and securely enhance the user experience before they integrate it widely.

Ultimately, the process related to evaluating technology depends on the role the decision-makers have in the organization. As many integrators know, across many customer firms, the IT department is often the lead when it comes to AV projects. AVIXA’s research found that to be particularly common within the

corporate and transportation markets. When IT is involved, concerns about data security and compatibility with existing systems increase; that might be why voiceassistance products are being downplayed at the moment.

Regardless, savvy integrators will want to know with whom they are most likely to engage so as to prepare talk tracks accordingly.

All this is just the beginning, of course. Truly engaging in new business opportunities introduces a host of other questions. AVIXA market intelligence can help with some additional data and insights, but, from there, it’s up to firms to plot their own courses as they seek safe harbor to weather the possible storm of a recession. As always, creativity and innovation will win out!

INDUSTRY POV: NEW VIDEO-BASED COLLABORATION TRENDS INDICATE A BRIGHT FUTURE (continued from page 35) Workers are integrating videobased collaboration on a more casual and common basis, and they’re growing accustomed to bring-your-own-device (BYOD) collaboration solutions, within the channels they build, which introduce other complexities.

Those complexities relate to location, workspace size and the ability to choose your own conferencing application. Issues like these pose new challenges

across the industry, as all of us work to make video-based collaboration more simple and seamless than ever before.

As always, AV integrators, consultants and other practitioners will be there, on the front lines, helping customers do new things and “make the magic happen.”

However, the growing desire for simplicity, along with the popularity of BYOD-centered,

video-based collaboration, with its need for support across all room sizes and venue types, could create a widening gap between what customers expect and what most manufacturers can deliver. AV professionals have to supply integrated solutions that are well suited for any application, at any time, in any meeting space—large rooms, small rooms, on the road, etc.

AV integrators, consultants and other practitioners who work with the latest products will offer the best solutions.

By using new technologies to help their customers enjoy the benefits, features and capabilities of the most advanced video collaboration systems, and thus serving remote workers and enterprisewide teams alike, their outlook will remain rosy.

HOUSE OF WORSHIP: TECHNOLOGY: FROM THE GROUND UP: NEW WORSHIP SPACE DESIGNED TO FOSTER A FEELING OF COMMUNITY (continued from page 27) Following completion of the installation, representatives from THOR, Ross Video, Hitachi, L-Acoustics, Theatrical Concepts and Yamaha assisted in training FBC Covington’s AVL team on the use of the new system.

According to Picone, Idibri and FBC Covington’s extensive planning process at the

beginning stages of the project paid dividends in terms of maximizing the ease of installation and maintenance for the new venue’s AVL systems.

“It’s pretty much designed and built like a theater installation,” he said. “There’s a catwalk, so there’s easy access to rigging points and lighting for focus, replacement and

84 Sound & Communications March 2019

maintenance, and speaker systems are accessible from the catwalk. The client actually put the time and money into it to make it a facility that’s easy to maintain and operate.”

On the client side, FBC Covington was thrilled with the completed project and had nothing but praise for Idibri’s extensive design work. “The

work Idibri has done for us, in the planning, execution and follow-through phases, has been extremely good,” Carpenter shared. “They worked hard to help us understand our own needs. Throughout the building project, they were in our corner and ensured what was planned was implemented correctly. We couldn’t be happier.”

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100 ACRES OF DISCREET AV: TULSA OK’S GATHERING PLACE CREATES AN ‘ORGANIC’ ATTRACTION (continued from page 53) and disappear,” he affirmed. When that strategy does not work, speakers are simply painted to match the wood. Wilson continued, “Keeping the speakers flush-mounted wherever possible [also] helps considerably, since they don’t create shadows that way.”

Another illustration of AV subtlety is also found on the poles that support the Boathouse’s tented roof. Meyer Sound MM-4XP speakers are positioned directly beneath the upward-pointed LED fixtures, mounted 10 to 12 feet above the floor, that wash the underside of the tent; the speaker cabinets disappear into the penumbra created around each fixture. “From above, the natural tendency is to look down toward the park and the water, and the speakers are covered by the fixtures, even in the daylight,” he explained. “At night, the glare of the lights will obscure the speakers.”

Just by virtue of its immenseness, Gathering Place is a work in progress, and it’ll likely remain so as the remaining 30 or so acres of the 100-acre park are built out. For instance, Wilson pointed out that a change order will add new speakers into Vista at the Boathouse, a new restaurant in the Boathouse opening this spring. (At the time of writing, make and model were yet to be determined.) “It was literally a change we made today,” he said, a prime example of the AV flux that will continue as Gathering Place evolves.

“We only opened last summer,” Wilson continued, “and we’re figuring out exactly what it will become as we go along. We’d get together on [an AV] plan for one space or area, and then, a month later, the needs of that space would change, so we’d have to adjust the AV plans. We’re used to that now.”

As expansive as it is, Gathering Place also has to acknowledge its adjacency to urban Tulsa. For instance, the park’s natural

performance venue—a bowl area, called the QuikTrip Great Lawn, near the Boathouse—hosted Gathering Place’s grand opening concert, a show headlined by The Roots. The area, which can hold an estimated 5,000 people, will use in-house AV systems and a portable stage, as needed. However, Wilson revealed, shows will have to check wind direction, given how sound can be blown either north or south (toward residential areas), affecting the orientation of the sound systems. “We’re tr ying to keep Gathering Place as natural as we can, but we also have to be aware of how it can impact the areas it’s next to,” he stated.

As important as the installed AV systems—for example, the projection capabilities in the Lodge—are to the park, Wilson underscored that maintaining the park’s pastoral nature will always be primar y. “One of the big concerns is that Gathering Place not have a constant music soundtrack in the background throughout the park,” he said. “We want to hear children’s voices and laughter, and the sounds of the birds in the trees. The AV systems bring a lot of value here, and they’re important for many of the things we want to achieve, but we still want to hear the wind through the trees.”

The previously referenced comparison of Gathering Place to Central Park has become common, and Tulsa natives are quick to remind visitors that the city has its share of other AV-equipped venues, including the Woody Guthrie Center and the Bob Dylan Archive (both, incidentally, also Kaiser Family Foundation initiatives). But this new attraction takes that portfolio a step further, with AV deeply integrated, and, although not showcased, never far away. “This place is the whole package, for everyone,” Dickerson enthused. “I took my six-year-old son here and he cried when we left. He didn’t want to leave. Neither did I.”

AN INTRODUCTION TO MILAN: THE NEW AV NETWORK PROTOCOL FOR THE INDUSTRY, BY THE INDUSTRY (continued from page 67) delivers a clear, defined profile for devices with a small subset of the standard and removes all ambiguity from this subset in order to achieve interoperability at the control layer.

At ISE 2019, Avnu made a series of announcements to show Milan’s momentum and continued growth. We added three new commercial AV members—Adamson Systems Engineering, ICEpower and Sienda Multimedia—to offer new insight and ideas and expand the workgroup of supporting manufacturers. Also, Milan members d&b audiotechnik and Adamson announced new, Milan-ready products at ISE; the products implemented the Milan specifications and they’re ready for certification testing. Luminex announced its Avnu-certified GigaCore switch and showed an interoperability demonstration with other Milan-ready products.

L-Acoustics announced the publication of an open-source, freeto-use AVDECC Librar y that is now fully Milan compatible with the recently published Milan Discover y, Connection & Control Specification for Listeners & Talkers. The open-source librar y offers a set of tools for controlling AVB and Milan devices using the AVDECC (IEEE1722.1) protocol and for meeting Avnu Milan specifications. These libraries can be implemented on Windows, Linux and macOS using standard development tools. Unit tests and sample programs are also available. The open-source tools are currently available on GitHub. The Milan public forum and message board was also made 86 Sound & Communications March 2019

public at ISE. It’s meant to encourage collaboration among, provide information to and answer questions from the greater commercial AV community. The forum is free, and it’s open for anyone to join and participate in. There, users will be able to get answers about Milan implementation, specifications, certification and more.

With more members, more expertise and more market leaders contributing to the Milan effort, we’ve begun to gear up to create a new, more streamlined testing and certification program. It will enable companies to move to a solution that will guarantee interoperability on a technically superior, futureproof network; the target launch is this spring. We are thrilled to see AV and IT manufacturers coming together to gain ownership and get in the driver’s seat. We are seeing a strong motivation to collaborate beyond competition and work together to refocus the network debate on true product value, such as functionality, usability, reliability and futureproofing.

For us, Milan is a business requirement. Milan’s purpose is to free us up creatively as manufacturers. We are looking forward to a busy roadmap for this year, with developments that will further enhance Milan’s impact. Manufacturers interested in exploring Milan network implementation should visit www.avnu. org/milan, get in touch by emailing milan@avnu.org or join the Milan forum at milanavcommunity.proboards.com.

NOT YOUR FATHER’S AV INDUSTRY ANYMORE: A BRAVE NEW WORLD IN WHICH PROFITS ARE SHIFTING FROM HARDWARE TO SERVICES (continued from page 57) good money from having their programmers configure code for an installation are fast becoming a memor y, as almost ever y new piece of AV hardware has a network interface card and can be assigned an IP address automatically by a managed network switch.

I mentioned AI earlier in this article. Applied to a control system, AI can “talk” to a connected product, determine which commands are valid for the functions it offers and then automatically configure a control interface by loading the correct drivers (or, more accurately, IP-delivered command strings) from a cloud ser ver.

Several iterations of these AI-based control systems have been shown at ISE, InfoComm and CEDIA for several years.

The difference is that the control software is licensed to customers for a period of time, rather than being purchased outright.

That subscription model is accompanied by automatic, periodic software and driver updates handled from the integrator’s end. A dealer or integrator can license this software to multiple clients after purchasing it from the manufacturer.

Other examples of software licensing include increasingly popular room-scheduling systems, consisting of internet-connected touchscreens that are mounted outside classrooms and meeting room doors. Dealers and integrators can also push software and security updates to wireless collaboration platforms. Even TVs used as monitors have onboard operating systems that require updating now and then.

Of all the new services that an integrator can offer, remote monitoring, diagnostics and cloud ser vices might require the biggest shift in mindset. The IT world is full of companies that provide ser vices like these, ranging from 24/7 network monitoring and support to security monitoring (a big deal nowadays) of hackers, viruses and malware. It’s that QoS thing again!

Internal AV support departments might not grasp the need for such ser vices, but IT departments that maintain AV facilities will get it immediately. In any case, the migration to AV-over-IP will inevitably force dealers’ and integrators’ hands as racks of dedicated HDMI matrix switchers are replaced by racks of managed Ethernet switches and wireless access points (WAPs).

A few enterprising dealers have gotten into the cloud ser ver

business for recording, archiving and playback of video assets.

The concept is appealing to educational institutions whose classes are delivered as video lectures for distance learning. Although it’s true that ever more schools and universities are creating YouTube channels for their content, some would prefer a lesspublic presence, and they’re willing to pay a reasonable fee for off-site archiving.

Remote monitoring and maintenance could include monitoring of AV hardware to detect and correct minor faults and operational glitches, as well as to push software updates to all equipment.

There’s also the security angle, providing 24/7 firewall monitoring for network hacks and other intrusions. Those ser vices can be billed on a monthly, semi-annual or annual basis, with the level of ser vices defined accordingly.

The catch here is that some AV dealers and integrators will be venturing into unfamiliar territor y. Extended ser vice contracts, 24/7 support and repair/replace warranties must be priced accurately; other wise, the ser vice provider will find its balance sheet in the red pretty quickly. Having knowledgeable IT people on staff at any AV shop is a “must” these days; their expertise can be put to work to determine failure rates and man-hours required for remote and on-site ser vice and replacement.

On the whole, AVIXA believes there is considerable room for growth in managed ser vices. Sean Wargo, AVIXA’s Senior Director of Market Intelligence, has listed three drivers that he’ll be tracking in his market research throughout this year.

The first is interconnectivity/remote monitoring. With more AV systems utilizing centrally managed, IP-based networks, there is increasing potential for integrators to branch into both of those services. Second, AI can add a turbo-boost to remote monitoring, as integrators not only can monitor but also can optimize AV network performance from a distance, using automation and predictive algorithms. Finally, Wargo believes that shifting AV spending over time from capital expenses (CapEx) to operating expenses (OpEx) will help both the integrator and the end user from a cash-flow perspective.

No, this is definitely not your father’s AV industry anymore….

INDUSTRY POV: SEIZING 4K OPPORTUNITIES IN 2019: PIXEL-PERFECT IMAGES CAN BE THE DIFFERENCE MAKER (continued from page 36) grated with existing systems, rather than replacing existing systems.

Once you’ve established 4K visuals using your IP KVM matrix, new benefits can begin to open up, particularly for work that involves high-pressure scenarios; examples include crisisresponse coordination and airport security. Enabled by KVM, high-quality visuals can empower organizations to improve the way they conduct their operations significantly, giving them the ability to view essential content in high quality, wherever they need it. That, in turn, will help those organizations manage high-pressure, critical scenarios with enhanced accuracy.

It’s much easier for a crisis-response center to run effectively with high-quality visuals than with old-fashioned, low-fidelity cameras; an increase in image quality will give crisis responders better insights into the events unfolding in the field.

Let’s return to healthcare, which was referenced earlier.

Hospitals can use 4K, delivered over IP KVM, to shorten the time between scans and results; doctors can review multiple test results, at the requisite high resolution, right from their desks.

As for airport control rooms, they can benefit from increased image quality by realizing improvements to CCTV monitoring accuracy. Benefits will compound to include improved passenger safety and staff efficiency.

The bottom line is that quality 4K visuals, delivered over IP KVM, can have a major positive effect for a wide range of industries.

Organizations for which pixel-perfect visuals are essential must take advantage of this ability to deliver 4K wherever it’s needed.

From mission-critical control rooms to state-of-the-art post-production suites, high-capacity, 4K-ready IP KVM connects people with the resources they need to take control of their work.

March 2019

Sound & Communications 87

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AVENT HORIZON: THERE’S ‘WIRELESS’ AND THEN THERE’S WIRELESS (continued from page 90) 802.11ax takes channel bonding one step further, making faster decisions about channel hopping, bonding and bit rates to transmit and receive data more efficiently. It does this using a technique called “multiple input, multiple output” (MIMO).

Manufacturers of Wi-Fi devices will often talk about “multiple antennas” to go with Wi-Fi “radios,” but what’s really happening is more transmit-receive links are available to establish and maintain a connection.

The band that I find most intriguing— and one I’ve been playing around with for more than a decade—is found at 60GHz. When I first got into ham radio, operating anything at 60GHz was perceived to be akin to warp-drive interplanetar y space travel.

But now it’s easy to construct wireless links here, with a total of six channels from 57GHz to 70GHz, each measuring about 2GHz in width—or 100 times larger than

any individual channel at 2.4GHz or 5GHz. With that kind of bandwidth, it becomes practical to think about streaming uncompressed, full-HD video or lightly compressed, ultra-HD/4K video. There are, of course, some caveats—for starters, there’s the fact that radio waves at this frequency can’t penetrate anything solid. (They actually collide with oxygen molecules!) However, they can and do bounce off solid objects like walls, windows, desks and even humans.

The wavelengths of signals at this frequency are so tiny (about .05 inches for a full wavelength) that it’s possible to have multiple transmit-receive links operating in the same room, on the same frequency. All that’s required is to change the polarization of the radio waves slightly, introducing as much as 60dB to 100dB of isolation between co-channel links. This technique, known as “beam steering,” is widely used

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by all manufacturers of 60GHz wireless video and camera links. And the inability of 60GHz signals to penetrate walls adds an extra layer of security, while also reducing interference.

What would you use this spectrum for?

How about super-high-speed wireless USB 3.0 links? It’s been done and demonstrated at trade shows, transferring files between laptops across a distance of about two feet with sustained data rates in the hundreds of megabits per second. Of course, wireless HDMI and DisplayPort links are lowhanging fruit and work quite well.

A third application is for a wireless access point (WAP) that links to 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi in a “translator” operation.

There aren’t many products that support ply placing the phone in a docking cradle 60GHz Wi-Fi (802.11ad, for those keeping and establishing the 60GHz handshake.

Denver • Austinhave • Houston • Dallas • Phoenix Although SI’s successor, Lattice Semiconscore), but companies like Qualcomm Oklahoma City5GHz, • San Antonio • Tulsa Las Vegas given up on SNAP, ductor, has •apparently shown tri-band modems (2.4GHz, Atlanta • Blackwood, NJ • Washington, DC 60GHz) before, and it featured 60GHz wire- some former SI executives have continued less gaming from smartphones in its CES with this idea at Keyssa. Their KISS wirebooth this year. Fabless chipmaker Peraso less links have been shown for ever ything has demonstrated all three of the applica- from 4K video through docking cradles to tions I just mentioned, and the 60GHz WAP video links for magnetic snap-on LED wall tiles. At CES, the company even managed is a shipping product.

The other interesting work being done at to build a 32-lane wireless link to stream this frequency is near-field high-bandwidth 8K/60 video to a large 8K LCD TV, simply connectivity, with data rates that run about by placing it in a custom cradle.

I’ll revisit this subject later in the year, 5Gb/s to 6Gb/s per link, over a maximum air gap of 10mm. Silicon Image (SI) first and I’m hoping to show a wireless ultra-HD showed this as SNAP, linking full-HD video link in my classes at InfoComm in June. from a smartphone to a big screen by sim- Stay tuned….

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Sound & Communications 89

AVENT HORIZON

There’s ‘Wireless’ And Then There’s Wireless Confused about all the options for wireless AV connectivity?

You’re not alone.

By Pete Putman, CTS ROAM Consulting LLC In last month’s column, I devoted a little space to some of the millimeterwave wireless product demos I saw at CES 2019. Between those demos, all the advancements with conventional Wi-Fi and the looming specter of 5G wireless, I can see where it all starts to become a bit confusing. And that’s not a good thing, as our industr y will find itself increasingly relying on “wireless” connectivity in the future for the next generation of learning and presentation spaces.

To add to the confusion, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concluded spectrum auctions in 2017 that removed 15 UHF channels from the TV broadcast spectrum and sold them to the highest bidder for a variety of purposes— among them, mobile phone connectivity.

And there’s a new digital TV standard, ATSC 3.0, currently undergoing testing at about 30 stations around the US. With any luck, it will start rolling out within a year—but your current television won’t be compatible with it.

It’s funny, but most of the highly coveted RF spectrum above 400MHz was considered mostly worthless as recently as the 1950s. It took the development of transistors and integrated circuits to reduce the size of transmitters and receivers, which were once big, bulky chassis screwed into 19-inch racks. Now, a transmitter and receiver for 60GHz operation 90 Sound & Communications March 2019

are about the size of Lincoln’s chin on a penny.

Aside from the problem of wireless microphone manufacturers being squeezed out by the loss of TV channels 38 through 51, we have other issues. The most popular Wi-Fi band (Wireless Fidelity, for those playing the home version) lies between 2.4GHz and 2.5GHz, otherwise known as 802.11b/g. Any product that offers Wi-Fi connectivity can transmit and receive in this band: your phone, your Roku box, your smart TV, your Wi-Ficonnected doorbell camera, your Wi-Fi-connected thermostat…. (OK, you get the point.)

There are only 11 channels available for operation in this band. As a result, the 2.4GHz RF spectrum is perpetually crowded with signals; sometimes, it’s so bad that your devices’ spectrum-hopping functions can’t find a clear channel on which to communicate. Not surprisingly, many of the early wireless video and wireless HDMI gadgets that came to market didn’t work ver y reliably, or even at all. (I know firsthand, having tried to demo many of these in my classes at InfoComm back in the day.)

Moving up, we have operations at 5GHz to 6GHz (802.11a/n). Unlike the 2.4GHz band, there isn’t nearly as much activity up here simply because there are still “connected” products—for example, both of my wireless laser printers—that don’t support 5GHz operation. Also, 5GHz radio signals don’t penetrate walls as well as those at 2.4GHz. Wood, glass, wallboard and laminates are fine, but anything with metal reinforcement acts like a Faraday cage and blocks the signal from passing.

There are about 25 channels available for unlicensed operation from 5.17GHz to 5.825GHz, each of which is 20MHz wide—about the same as the channels at 2.4GHz. Only wireless devices that incorporate dynamic frequency selection (DFS) and transmit power control (TPC) can use all these channels. Both protocols were added to minimize interference to government and military operations. Because the spectrum isn’t nearly as crowded here, wireless video and HDMI products work a lot better and more reliably (which I also demonstrated at InfoComm).

Where things get interesting is with 802.11ac and 802.11ax channel-bonding protocols. To stream video or other large files, two or more channels can be combined in a wireless connection to increase bandwidth, up to a total of 80MHz or four standard channels. These channels can be in the 5GHz band or both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

It’s one of the reasons you’ll find Netflix or Amazon Prime streaming smoothly, without dropouts. Major internet ser vice providers (ISPs) are now giving customers 802.11ac wireless routers as a result. (continued on page 88)

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Program

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Switch detected; source transitions to Program output

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INPUTS

1

2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

1

2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

PROGRAM

MUTE

FREEZE

1

2

3

MUTE

FREEZE

1

2

3

OUTPUTS

• Matrix Mode provides seamless switching for larger AV systems

4

EFFECTS

5

6

7

8

5

6

7

8

PRESET

I/O ESC

VIEW

VIDEO

AUDIO

4

PRESETS

Previous Program source cuts to Preview output

ADJUST

DISSOLVE

CUT

RECALL SAVE

SIZE

WIPE

VIDEO KEY

ENTER

POSITION

PIP

LOGO

TAKE

PREVIEW

CONTROL

ENTER

ADJUST CONFIG

MENU

NEXT

TAKE CONFIG

PRIMARY

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REDUNDANT

INTEGRATION SEAMLESS SWITCHER

POWER

XTP

CrossPoint 1600

XTP SERIES DIGITAL MATRIX SWITCHER

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Preview

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